Amity Invasion
by FlikFreak
Summary: Kingdom Hearts Crossover. When Heartless threaten his hometown, Danny knows he's got his hands full. Can the Keyblade Master and Phantom beat back this terrifying and deadly force, or will Amity Park fall to darkness? Rating subject to change.
1. Crossing the Line

Okay, I admit. I should probably be worrying about fixing up and/or finishing "Origins." (Un)fortunately, I got this idea and couldn't get it out of my head, so one project gets laid off for another one to step forth. And it's a crossover? Good heavens, I must be insane! Again!

So…Kingdom Hearts and Danny Phantom. Kingdom Hearts can pretty much cross over with just about anything due to its nature, and this isn't exactly the first time I've done this. I've sifted through a few other DP/KH crossovers, but I haven't found one quite like the idea I have in mind, and you know what a wise man once said? If you can't find it, make it! Or something along those lines…

So, here's my go at it. Also, this fic is pre-Phantom Planet. You know, for reference and stuff.

Before you all kill me to death...

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Kingdom Hearts. They are owned by...uuh...their owners. And stuff.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter One: Crossing the Line**

* * *

"Mister Fenton, will you please pay attention!"

Danny Fenton snapped out of his catnap and sat straight up in his desk. Mister Lancer was staring at him with narrow eyes, and by the looks of things he was definitely not happy with the raven-haired boy. Danny quickly attempted to regain favor, but was quickly interrupted. "I understand my class isn't quite as exciting as your parents' occupation, but that does not give you an excuse to sleep through it."

The irony of the man's statement nearly gave Danny a headache. His parents were the most notorious ghost hunters in Amity Park, but what many didn't know was that he himself was also a ghost hunter, under the guise of Danny Phantom. While he was indeed successful in his endeavors, he often became exceedingly tired by the time certain hunts were through, and it never failed to aggravate him when certain ghosts failed to learn their lesson after being sent back to the Ghost Zone. Thankfully, the rate of attacks had significantly fallen in the past few weeks, but each encounter was still tiring in its own right.

Lancer cleared his throat. "Now, then. Before the bell rings, I have a special announcement to make."

_Special announcement?_ Danny thought, sitting up in his chair a bit more. It wasn't every day they had one of these, especially from Lancer.

"We have an exchange student arriving tomorrow," Lancer continued. "He will be joining the Freshman class for an undetermined amount of time. I will introduce him to you all tomorrow, but I trust you will treat him with respect as a fellow classmate."

The bell promptly rang, cutting off whatever else Lancer would have said. Danny was glad to exit the class; it was the last one of the day and he had some serious homework to catch up on. It wasn't long before Sam and Tucker joined him in the halls.

"You hear the news about the transfer student yet?" Sam asked. "No one knows where exactly he's from or how long he's staying."

"Lancer announced it just last hour," Danny replied. "My parents were talking about having a visitor for a while the other day. I don't think it's a coincidence."

"You've got a visitor other than _us_?" Tucker exclaimed, somewhat sarcastically. "That's a new one. He a fellow ghost hunter?"

"I doubt it," Danny said, sighing, "Though whether he's a ghost hunter or just a ghost, I'm not going to be surprised. Mom and Dad said he's staying for at least a month or so, but they're not sure."

"Sounds suspicious if you ask me," Sam grumbled. "Unknown origin, unknown stay time…I wouldn't be surprised either, to be honest."

"He's supposed to be arriving tonight," Danny continued, "So I have to get home fast. If I'm late, I don't think Mom will be too happy."

"So why walk?" Sam answered, a rare mischievous glint in her eye.

Danny grinned back at her. He knew where she was going with this. "Cover for me, will you?"

* * *

Sora, for the very first time since meeting him, seriously doubted Cid's information. He had landed on a world known as Amity Park, which was supposed to be the top ghost infestation target around, but it seemed perfectly peaceful. He suspected it was probably because of timing issues, but he brushed it off. Cid had received readings from Amity Park signaling Heartless presence, and immediately contacted Sora and the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, whom all formed together for a plan to get rid of the menace. Unfortunately, none of them were simple, and they were left with only one choice.

"So, basically I'm going to school again for the first time in two years?" Sora asked, tugging at his jacket. They hadn't bothered giving him new clothes for the escapade, which he was _very_ happy with. He had gone through quite a bit of astonishment and embarrassment to get his current ones.

"That's right," Leon repeated. He and Aerith were temporarily posing as his parents, mainly because Aerith had the right appearance and Leon was the only one of the right age to pull the trick off. Sora personally thought they looked a bit young, but he had seen some teenagers' parents look exceptionally younger than they actually were, so it wouldn't be too hard. "We've had to pull quite a few strings, so don't mess this up."

"You'll be staying with the Fentons as a foreign exchange student," Aerith explained calmly. "They have two kids, and one is about your age, so you won't be all alone. Just remember not to blow your cover unless you're in danger."

"Got it," Sora replied. It was somewhat different from his previous missions. He normally didn't have a problem with the keyblade showing up, but here it would make him stand out like a sore thumb. People didn't exactly wield swords here as far as he could tell. This wasn't going to be an easy task: it was basically sneak in, seal keyhole, sneak out, and don't get killed (or worse) while you're at it. At least the Organization wouldn't be after him.

But someone else was bound to be.

They finally came upon the house that Sora was to be staying at. It was certainly an odd piece of architecture; it looked like any other brick building other than the fact that it had a large metal UFO-style structure on top with the sign "Fenton Works" on the front. Simple, yet completely wacky. _Nothing new there,_ Sora thought, _But it certainly isn't what I was expecting._

Leon was obviously nervous about this whole affair; they were forbidden to bring weapons along with them, thus his gunblade was left in the Gummi Ship, leaving them at the mercy of Aerith's magic (which wasn't all that bad; Aerith was known to be a very formidable opponent in spite of her peaceful nature). Thankfully, they had no attacks on the way. Aerith was the one to knock on the door. "Remember the plan, Sora."

Sora simply nodded. It might be harder than it sounded, but the plan was all they had. He had to work with it.

The door opened to a woman dressed in a teal jumpsuit. Upon opening the door and recognizing the people before her, she pulled off her hood and red goggles. "Oh, hello!" She said. "You must be the Leonharts."

_Leonhart,_ Sora echoed in his head. _Gee, that's original. I guess I'll have to get used to that one._

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Fenton," Aerith said, bowing politely. "We're here to drop off Sora."

Mrs. Fenton cocked her head in concern. "You can't stay?" She inquired.

"I'm afraid not," Aerith replied. "We have some meetings to go to before we get ready to head back home." She bent down in front of Sora. "Keep in touch, sweetie, okay?"

_Man, this is awkward._ "Okay, Mom." After an odd hug, Aerith and Leon headed down past the stairs and down the street. Sora watched and waved awkwardly, still having a hard time accepting this whole façade. Aerith would make a great mother should she ever decide to have children, he decided. As for Leon, he had a hard time believing the man even volunteered for this. He'd sooner pass for a mercenary.

"It's awfully cold outside," Mrs. Fenton said suddenly. "Come on in, young man. We have dinner ready for you. Are you alright with spaghetti?"

Sora nodded. Spaghetti was more than welcome. In many of his adventures, he had usually been stuck with instant-fix meals or some form of Asian food. He could hardly remember the last time he had actually used a fork and knife, but thankfully he hadn't forgotten how.

As he and the woman made their way into the kitchen past what he assumed was the living room, Sora quickly caught sight of the family in the room. A rather chubby man wearing an orange jumpsuit (whom Sora immediately assumed was Mr. Fenton) sat next to a young, red-haired girl wearing a black shirt and headband along with a pair of jeans. She also had her nose buried in a book. At the far end of the table was a boy whom had to be around Sora's age. He had unkempt black hair and ice-blue eyes, and wore a white shirt with a pair of jeans. Something about the boy caught Sora's attention, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

"Everyone," Mrs. Fenton began, "This is Sora Leonhart; he'll be staying with us for a few months."

Sora took that as his cue to wave politely. The family returned the gesture.

After finding Sora a seat at the table (which involved a bit of digging through a nearby closet), dinner began. The keyblade master found it awkward to introduce himself to these strangers, in spite of having gone through a similar routine every time he went to a new world. This escapade, however, was going to be far more intricate than his previous ones, he was sure…

Thankfully, the introductions were short. After being introduced to the adults of the family, the children introduced themselves. "I'm Jasmine," the girls said, putting her book down now that the meal had started, "But you can call me Jazz."

The boy smiled weakly. "My name's Danny," he said, looking quite sheepish. Sora nodded at him, smiling brightly. It paid off; some of the anxiety on the boy's face faded a bit.

For a while, Sora feared that dinner would be a quiet occasion, but to his relief the parents were talkative – especially Mr. Fenton. "I've got a few new inventions underway, Maddie, and the new Ghost Finder is just about finished!"

"You seem to like ghosts a whole lot," Sora commented.

"Mom and Dad are professional ghost catchers," Jazz said, taking another bite of her meal. Danny vaguely nodded his head in agreement, but winced. He apparently wasn't fond of his parents' occupation.

"We haven't had much success lately," Mr. Fenton scowled. "Every ghost we run into either manages to get away before we can reach it or gets taken care of by someone else. We've been going after Inviso-Bill for ages and the only time we managed to catch him was when he blatantly sat in front of me, and I had to make a truce with him to get back to safety."

"At least you got out of there okay," Danny insisted, smiling uneasily. "I mean, not all ghosts are evil or anything, right?" The boy cast an odd glance to his sister, whom just smiled oddly. Sora also nodded in agreement. He had met a few ghosts in his own time; Jack Skellington's pet dog, Zero, had been anything but evil. The spectral canine had actually been a huge help to him.

"That is true," Mrs. Fenton mused, nodding somewhat slightly, "Though the only ones I ever see are the hostile ones. Inviso-Bill is a bit of a strange case, though; we've been tracking him for almost a year and we still haven't caught him."

"Kind of like that one fish the fishermen always go after?" Sora suggested.

"That and more," Mr. Fenton groaned. "Inviso-Bill's the 'big one' for us, all right, but for some odd reason he never fights back against us whenever we attack."

Sora swallowed down the last of his noodles (he wasn't sure if he was supposed to eat them like ramen or not, so he played it safe and stuck with the fork) and glanced around. Danny had been the only one to finish the rest of his dinner and was giving him an odd look. Everyone else was quick to notice, but thankfully the odd silence was quickly broken. "Danny, I'll clean up the kitchen," Mrs. Fenton began. "Would you please show Sora around the house?"

The raven-haired boy seemed a bit reluctant at first, but he nodded momentarily. "Okay." He quickly placed his dishes in the sink and made for the door to the living room.

As Danny stood, Sora abandoned his own chair, bowing politely before following his guide. "I take it your parents are pretty interested in ghosts?" he said once he was sure they were out of earshot. In attempt to further appeal to Danny, Sora gave an odd smirk to him.

Thankfully, it worked; Danny rolled his eyes and laughed. "You have no idea," he grumbled. "Once you get my dad started he'll never shut up, but thankfully Mom's a bit more reasonable."

"What about you and your sister?" Sora continued, hoping to make some conversation as they passed into the living room by the front door and up the stairs.

"Jazz is more into psychology than anything," Danny replied. "Me? Well…" He paused, an unsure expression on his face. "It's hard to say. I want to be an astronaut more than anything."

Sora couldn't help but smile. He had flown through space more times than he could count, shooting laser beams at enemy space ships and asteroids, not to mention visiting countless other planets. After all, before this whole mess had started, he had wanted to see other worlds. "Looks like we've got something in common," he said a bit more quietly than he intended. "I've had a sort of interest in astronomy myself."

Danny's eyes seemed to light up and a smile beamed across his face. "Really?"

"Yeah. I've always wanted to go out and visit other planets and stuff." Upon saying it, Sora couldn't help but remember where that had landed him. _Oh, the irony…_

"Cool," Danny replied, grinning from ear to ear. "I always liked the no-gravity part. It just seemed awesome to fly around like that."

Sora blinked at this. "Seemed?" he echoed. _That's odd. It's like he's done it before or something._

Apparently, Danny quickly caught himself and corrected his mistake. "Ah, well…it still does. I guess as you grow up you get less…I dunno." They reached the top floor of the house and he began pointing to various doors. "Mom and Dad's room is down the hall. Jazz's room is the door next to it. We're not really allowed in those rooms. Over here is my room." On cue, he pushed open a door. Inside was a relatively clean room; with several posters of space ships and other planets, a small bookshelf to the left, a computer situated neatly on the desk, several model rockets (there was one carefully displayed next to the computer that had apparently been smashed and reassembled before), and the bed was conveniently situated next to the window. A basketball was stuffed into a corner, but it was apparently not good for much more than gathering dust.

Sora almost laughed. It was loads cleaner than his own room back at Destiny Islands.

"We don't have a guest bedroom," Danny said, wincing noticeably as he spoke and eyeing a rolled-up sleeping bag on the floor, "So Mom and Dad are having you sleep in my room. I hope you don't mind or anything…"

"It's fine," Sora replied, smiling hopefully and kneeling next to the sleeping bag, placing his backpack next to it. "I've slept in some pretty odd places before. This is actually a pretty welcome sight."

Danny smiled awkwardly. "Wanna see the rest of the house before Dad comes in ranting about a new invention?"

Sora grinned, chuckling. "He does it that often?"

"Like you'd never believe," Danny replied. "While we're at it, I might as well show you where the lab is in case you need to go looking for someone and we're not upstairs."

"Lab?" Sora echoed. He had been to a certain scientist's labs before, and both had been quite well-concealed. Whatever the large metal building was on top of their house couldn't have been a laboratory; it was too easily exposed.

Danny stiffened a bit, but eventually nodded. "Yeah. Mom and Dad have a lab in the basement. Come on."

The keyblade master obediently followed Danny down the stairs once more. After climbing those, Danny led him through the house to another staircase (pointing out the living room and the foyer while passing). As they descended, Sora became aware of the walls becoming some sort of metallic structure. After a short descent, Danny pushed open a large, metal door, leading into a large room fitted with several tables, which were covered in beakers, a number of strange gadgets, a thermos, and a good number of papers. At the far end of the lab, however, was something that caught Sora's undivided attention: a large, cylindrical shape in the wall. It apparently was some sort of doorway; it was shut tight by a pair of black-and-yellow doors. There was a small control panel to the right of it, with three small dials but, ironically, no power switch. Sora gestured kindly toward the object. "What's that?" he asked.

The dark-haired boy next to him followed his gaze until he found out where Sora's attention was. "Oh, that?" He began, a hint of anxiety in his voice. "It's the Fenton Portal." He walked casually up to it, crossing his arms. "My parents built it a while back. It's supposed to be some sort of portal to the Ghost Zone."

"Does it work?" Sora asked, curious.

Danny chuckled knowingly. "Does it ever," he replied. "It lets ghosts into down every so often, and not all of them are friendly. They stuck the power button on the inside of it, so there's no real way to turn it off without unplugging or damaging it now."

At this, Sora furrowed his eyebrows. "How'd it even get on in the first place?"

There was an odd moment of silence before Danny shrugged. "Whatever happened, it's on now. I wouldn't get too close to it if I were you; it's a pretty dangerous piece of machinery."

* * *

Later that night after everyone else had settled in, Sora and Danny were just starting to get ready for bed. Sora had insisted on taking the floor when Danny had done his best to insist upon hospitality, but eventually the two had decided to alternate on who got the floor and who got the bed, and Danny won the bed that night. Thankfully, Sora was quick to nod off when it came to a sleeping bag, though that could probably be attributed to his high adaptability that he developed over the past two years.

He was also a very light sleeper.

An odd rustling caught Sora's attention past midnight, and he sat upright nervously. It took a while to adjust to his surroundings, but once his memory set in again, the only thing he found startling was the fact that the bed next to him was empty. _He probably had to use the restroom,_ Sora reasoned. He was about to head back to sleep when he caught a strange shape in the sky through the open window.

It was a boy…or at least something similar. Sora could make him out clearly enough: there was a black suit of some sort, white hair, and an ethereal glow around him. Rather than legs, he had a spectral tail behind him as he flew about, making circles and loops in the sky. It was an odd sight to behold, but still somewhat peaceful.

_It's not a heartless,_ Sora confirmed, _And definitely not a Nobody. I've already dealt with enough of both to know if there's one around…so what is that?_

Whatever it was, it was certainly content. The moment of peace, however, didn't last long; it spotted Sora and stopped in its tracks. A moment of awkward calm passed before the figure shot out of sight. Sora leaned out the window to see where it had gone, but to no avail. The figure was gone.

It was moments later that the bedroom door opened and Danny walked in, looking a bit more awake than he should have. "What're you doing up?" he whispered.

"I thought I saw something," Sora replied. "I think it was a person. A kid, actually…he was flying, but when he saw me he took off."

Danny made his way to his bed casually. "Probably one of the local ghosts," he replied, as though it happened every day. "Assuming you don't leave by the end of the week, it probably won't be the last you see of them." With that, Danny went right back to sleep.

Now with something to think about, Sora slipped back into his sleeping bag and stared at one of the many posters on Danny's wall. He had seen a _ghost_ outside the window. Not a Heartless, not a Nobody. A _ghost_. And yet here this boy was, acting completely normal as though it happened all the time.

_I can understand if it's commonplace around here,_ the keyblade master thought, _But his parents are ghost hunters. Wouldn't he have some sort of hatred for them or something, or at least fear?_

Though the questions were still in his mind, Sora eventually fell asleep. He could ask around tomorrow after school.

* * *

So...good? Bad? Completely lacking of continuity? (I tend to do that every now and then.) This has got to be my longest first chapter EVAR, by the way...three thousand words, WHEW.

I realize the majority of this first chapter is in Sora's point of view. We'll have more Danny love very shortly, everyone! I promise! (hides)


	2. First Fright

For future reference, Sora's using his KH2 outfit. You know, the spiffy black one.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Two: First Fright**

* * *

Danny awoke to the odd sight of a spiky-haired brunette in a sleeping back next to his bed. It took him only a moment to realize that the exchange student was sleeping in his room, to which he relaxed only slightly. _Keeping my powers a secret will be a lot harder with him sharing my room,_ he thought nervously. Of course, this kid seemed to be mysterious in his own right, but Danny brushed the thought aside. He cast his alarm clock a glance, and sighed in relief when he woke up exactly four minutes before the bell would go off. He pulled the blankets off of himself and gently shook the boy next to him. "Sora. Wake up."

Sora, unfortunately, did _not_ want to wake up. "C'mon, Riku, we're still on summer vacation…"

_Wow, this kid is strange._ "Sora, wake up. It's time for school."

The boy tangled in the sleeping bag muttered something about not being in school, but sat up anyway. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he stretched his arms and shook his head a bit. Danny sat back on his heels in amusement. "Does your hair always stay upright like that?"

Sora gave him an odd look. "It's been like this for as long as I can remember."

Deciding not to push the issue of Sora's taste in locks further, Danny made his way to his closet and picked out a shirt, tossing it gracelessly onto the bed with a pair of jeans. After both he and Sora were dressed, they lazily headed downstairs for breakfast. Danny quickly caught Sora's confused expression and shook his head. "You'd never want to eat anything my parents cook."

"I don't mind or anything," Sora replied, waving his hands in front of him defensively. "But…why not?"

"Just trust me," Danny replied, vaguely remembering the last time his mother attempted to cook hot dogs. They had ended up being possessed and attacked his father, though fortunately they were easy to get rid of.

Once in the kitchen, Danny quickly went through a list of un-haunted breakfast food for Sora to choose from (which ended up being a surprisingly short list), and eventually the foreigner settled for a bowl of cereal. There was a moment of amusement after Danny fixed their breakfast and supplied spoons; Sora acted as though he had rarely seen a utensil before. When Danny asked him about this, Sora simply responded with an odd grin and said, "You have _no_ idea…"

It was a major blessing to Danny that his parents were sleeping in that morning, but Jazz soon arrived to have a breakfast of her own. Sora greeted her cheerfully when she came in, and Jazz nodded in reply. "Morning, Sora. First day of school have you excited?"

Sora chuckled uneasily. "I guess you could say that," he replied.

Jazz nodded accordingly and placed a small slip of paper next to him. "This is your schedule and locker," she said calmly. "The school board knew who you were staying with so they arranged it to where Danny will be in your classes to help you get settled in." She cast a helpless gaze to her brother, as though saying "I tried to stop them, little brother…"

Danny winced. _It'll be a lot harder to keep my secret away from him if he's in all of my classes._ As he cast a glance at Sora, he noticed the boy failing to mask his own anxiety with a cheerful grin. _But then again, I bet he's got his own secrets, too._

He was broken out of his thoughts when a familiar tingling crept through his fingers and arm, followed by the sound of his spoon clattering in his bowl. His eyes swept instantly to his cereal bowl, and sure enough, his hand had gone completely intangible and thus allowed his spoon to fall right through it. After admonishing himself silently for being careless, he quickly picked up his spoon again, avoiding an odd stare from Sora, and wolfed down his breakfast. Thankfully, Sora shrugged it off somewhat reluctantly and went back to his own food.

After a somewhat uneventful breakfast, Jazz stood, pulling her backpack over her shoulders. "You two want me to drive you to school? The walk isn't that long, but it's easier to drive."

Danny gestured to Sora, whom caught on quickly. He shook his head. "I'm more comfortable walking," he replied. "I could use the exercise anyway."

Once Jazz took off down the street, Danny cast Sora an odd glance. "Why not hitch a ride?" he asked. "Jazz is actually not half bad at driving."

"Squ-my Dad is," Sora said, biting his lip. "The trip over here wasn't exactly comfortable and I'd rather be on my own two feet for a while if that's okay with you."

Thankfully, it was a nice day outside, and Danny was more than happy to walk. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and it wasn't too cold or too hot. It wasn't long before Danny was met with his friends on the way.

Sam had just walked out of her front door when Danny passed by her house. He paused momentarily, tugging on Sora's sleeve lightly to get his attention. "Hey, Sam!"

"Morning, Danny," the Goth replied. "How's…who's this?"

"The exchange student Mr. Lancer mentioned in class yesterday," Danny replied. "Sam, this is Sora, the exchange student. Sora, meet Sam, my best friend."

Sora bowed politely. "Nice to meet you."

Sam grinned. "Black is a good color on you," she mused.

"Thanks," Sora replied warily, scratching his head. "These clothes weren't exactly easy to get."

"I'd imagine not," Sam replied. "Who's the designer?"

There was a hesitation on Sora's part as he glanced upward, apparently trying to remember. He was interrupted by another arrival, namely a familiar African-American hauling a backpack on his shoulder and a PDA in his hand. "Hey, guys!" He called. "How…who're you?"

Sora nodded politely. "I'm Sora," he said simply.

"He's the transfer student," Danny supplied. "We don't know how long he's staying, so try to get along while he's here, okay?"

Sam and Tuck exchanged glances and nodded in silent agreement. Everyone knew what was going on: they had to keep Danny's secret from Sora for as long as possible; hopefully until the boy left. It definitely wasn't a simple task, especially with the situation Danny had filled them in on previously, but they had to try.

"So what's it like where you live?" Tuck began, hoping to start some conversation with the exchange student.

"Hard to say," Sora replied. "We don't really live in one particular place. Aer…Mom and Dad are always going to different countries and whatnot because their jobs send them there."

"Military?" Sam suggested.

Sora chuckled knowingly. "Yeah, pretty much. I'm usually dragged along for the ride whenever we go places. It's hard to keep in touch with my friends at home." At that, he sulked a bit, staring at the sidewalk. "I miss everyone. I haven't seen them in two years."

"Must be tough," Danny said quietly.

"It is," Sora replied, cheering up slightly, "But it's not too bad. It gets lonely after a while, sure, but we keep in touch."

By the look on his face, Danny had a feeling that Sora's words were only partially true.

* * *

Sora hadn't been to school in ages. He had almost forgotten what it was like, though he had some reminders here and there from his friends in Twilight Town when they had asked him if he had done his homework yet (to which he had replied in great confusion, thus confirming that he was from "out of town"). Cid had, of course, given him a crash course in how to take notes and how to look like he was paying attention while still staying alert for intruders. He remembered the conversation with the engineer clearly…

"_You can't be serious."_

"_Not to worry, kid," Cid replied, still typing away at his computer. "The school there is easy to get through, and we're kicking you down a grade level to be safe. It should be simple for you to get your work done without a hitch. Besides, you'll need to keep an eye out for the usual riff-raff, plus that rogue ghost."_

"_Rogue ghost?" Sora echoed._

_Cid nodded, finally glancing away from his computer. "Yep. He's an odd one; some claim he's a hero, some hate his guts…if he even has guts anymore, but you get what I mean. He's apparently saved plenty of people and the mayor's the only one giving him a bad name, so he's good in my books."_

_Sora chuckled. He knew Cid didn't like politics very much, but in this case he still brought up a valid point. "Right. Tell me what I need to do."_

The keyblade master was shaken out of his thoughts when he saw a large, looming building before him labeled _Casper High School_. Several kids walked about the entrance yard; some simply sitting around, others heading inside. It had been ages since Sora had seen so many people gathered in one place; in previous places he had been, the worlds had been sparse due to the constant Heartless and Nobody attacks. Maybe this place was safe for the time being.

Sora followed Danny inside to find his locker while Sam and Tucker went to their own lockers and prepared for their classes. The two were just rounding a corner when Danny walked straight into a tall and quite muscular young man.

"Hey, Fen-toad! Watch where you're going!"

Sora immediately came to Danny's defense, shoving an arm in front of the dark-haired boy and narrowing his eyes. "Hey! Leave him alone; he's never done anything to you!"

The blonde-haired boy grabbed Sora by the sides of his jacket and dragged him up to his face. "You want to run that by me again, kid?!"

This person did not fail to make Sora mad. He felt a Thundaga spell flickering at his fingertips, but resisted the urge to fire it off – though not without great difficulty – and kept his cool. "I said," he repeated; face not faltering, "Leave him alone."

"And why should I listen to you?!"

Sora just smirked, the spell once again crackling at his fingers. "Because looks can be deceiving."

The blonde was about to throw a punch when he suddenly found his foot in a world of pain. He screamed, hopping on one foot down the hall and yelping in pain. Sora, whom had been dropped mercilessly to the floor, got up daintily and grinned. "_Very_ deceiving," he muttered victoriously.

Danny gawked. "Whoa," he said breathlessly. "I've never seen anyone get rid of Dash so quick."

"Dash?" Sora echoed, turning to his new friend as they continued casually down the hall.

"He's a quarterback on the football team," Danny replied blandly, "And gets a lot of favor from teachers and whatnot. I'm apparently his favorite when it comes to being bullied."

Sora couldn't help but cringe. It reminded him strongly of Seifer when he picked on Hayner and the gang from Twilight Town, only Dash was a lot more juvenile and a lot less witty. "Why does he pick on _you_ so much?"

"My parents are obsessive ghost hunters for one," Danny said, stopping at a locker and fumbling with the combination idly. "I've also been known to be a bit of a klutz at times. I dropped thirty-four beakers in the science lab in a single month, and I'm banned from handling any fragile school property."

"Harsh," Sora commented, wincing. "Slippery fingers?"

Danny chuckled, grabbing a notebook from his locker and shutting it loudly. "You have no idea," he replied. "I'll show you how to use your locker later. Our teachers are giving you the books as we head to class."

Classes went smoothly, thankfully. Sora had all of them with Danny, thankfully, and was able to weave his way around. Taking notes wasn't as much of a chore as he thought it to be, but it was still awkward. It wasn't until lunch that anything interesting happened.

The cafeteria food wasn't bad, though the actual people in the cafeteria got on Sora's nerves. In spite of his "divine intervention" with Dash, the boy's crew was still mocking the keyblade master. Thankfully, Sora managed to calmly ignore them until he sat down with Danny, Sam and Tucker. "Would someone care to tell me why they think I'm a wonderful object of humiliation?" he grumbled.

"Because you're sitting with us, unfortunately," Sam replied as she dug into her salad.

Sora rolled his eyes. "They must not have anything better to do with their time," he muttered. He casually examined the table: aside from his and Danny's platters, which were normal, Sam had nothing but vegetables and fruits on her plate, and Tucker had piled his up with meat. _A vegetarian and a meat connoisseur,_ he mused. _Interesting._

"So, Danny," Sam began, "Any _interesting encounters_ yet this week?"

Danny shrugged. "Not really," he replied.

"Encounters?" Sora echoed.

"Ghosts," Danny replied, holding an idle hand before his friends as though to silence them. "There's usually at least one haunt a week. Amity Park is known as the most haunted city in the country."

"Impressive," Sora commented. "Does that keep your parents busy?"

"Not as much as it should," Danny replied. "They usually get taken care of by other ghost hunters in the area. Mom's not bad at her job, but Dad tends to be a total klutz."

Danny was about to take another bite of his burger when Sora saw him freeze on the spot. It might have been a trick of the light, but for a brief second he thought he saw a tiny stream of blue mist coming from Danny's mouth, as though he was seeing his breath in the cold.

"Danny? Something wrong?"

"Get down!"

There was a huge explosion just as Danny dove across the table and shoved Sora and Tuck down to the ground. Sam, fortunately, had already seen the wave of green headed their way. Sora cracked his eyes open just in time to see the rubble scattered about a great hole in the wall behind where he had just sat. Danny's eyes narrowed to a nearly uncharacteristic glare. "It's not safe here! You need to run! Sam, Tucker, cover for me!"

Sora had no idea what Danny needed covering for, but the other two obviously did. Danny dove under a table, and the other two pulled Sora to the corner of the cafeteria while other students ran in fear. It didn't take long for the keyblade master to find the source of the chaos, as through the hole in the wall he saw an enormous, translucent blue dragon. "Does this happen often?" Sora squeaked.

"Not _that_ often," Sam replied, "But it's nothing new." With that, they pressed themselves against the wall as the dragon neared them, snarling.

_I can't blow my cover,_ Sora grumbled inwardly. _That would be against the rules. No meddling. But if this thing puts anyone in unnecessary danger, I'm going to have to disappoint everyone…_

He was about to summon the keyblade when a blur of black and white flew across his vision, slamming into the drake and throwing it out the hole in the wall. Astounded, Sora raced up to the hole to see the dragon having been taken down by the strangest figure he had ever seen: a boy wearing a black-and-white jumpsuit, white hair, and a slim physique. An ethereal and undulating white glow surrounded him, and he had a spectral tail in place of legs.

Sora's eyes widened. "The Rogue Ghost?" he breathed.

The faintly glowing figure before him apparently noticed him. "Rogue ghost?" he echoed in disbelief. "I guess it's better than Inviso-Bill at any rate…"

_Inviso-Bill?_ Sora repeated in his mind. Danny's mother had mentioned that ghost the previous night at dinner. They were always going after him but he had no interest in fighting back. Perhaps this ghost could help him?

Sora's thoughts were interrupted when a jet of green flame soared in his direction. The ghost-boy flew toward him and tackled him to the ground just as the flames would have burnt them both to a crisp. Staring at Sora with glowing green eyes, the stranger stood back up. "It's not safe here," he said sternly. "Get somewhere safe, _now_."

The keyblade master happily complied, racing for the door after Sam and Tucker. He paused, however, when he noticed something very, very wrong with the scenery around him.

_Where's Danny?!_

* * *

Mmm. That seems like a good place to end the chapter. Not as long as the previous one, but long enough.


	3. Close Calls

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Three: Close Calls  
**

* * *

Danny clenched his teeth. "I thought I already took care of you!" He cried as he shot a beam of ectoplasm at the drachen beast that threatened him.

"_I want to go to the BALL!"_ was the only reply he received, along with another stream of green flames that nearly scorched him. Deftly soaring out of the way, Danny readied another blast when a familiar figure caught the corner of his eye.

Sora was scrounging about the cafeteria, wide-eyed and panicked. He was sifting through piles of rubble and looking under tables, calling out for his friend. Danny knew he was looking for him, but he couldn't let Sora get hurt. With an oath, the ghost-boy shot another ectoplasmic blast at the dragon, knocking it back a few feet. The monster retaliated with another blast of fire. Danny dove downward, barely dodging out of the way as the dragon lashed out with its tail as a follow-up. The ghost-boy struggled to place a shield in front of him, but failed. He shielded himself from the strike…

…which never came.

Danny found himself looking up just in time to see a sphere of hexagons surrounding him, blocking the whip-like lash of the dragon's tail and sending a shockwave toward the beast. The shield vanished momentarily, but the ghost-boy was still left blinking in surprise. _What was that?_ He wondered. _I know _I_ didn't do that…_

He barely had time to think when the dragon began recovering from the rebound, and raced forward at him. Thinking quickly, Danny lunged toward the dragon, sparing a glance at its neck. _Yep, the Amulet of Aragon. I should have known. Just remove that and it's all over._ He dodged another stream of flame and narrowed his eyes as he shot another ectoplasmic blast from his hands. _The problem is getting close enough to rip that thing off. If I can't do that I'll just have to use the thermos…_

Another tail was sent his way, and Danny phased through part of the cafeteria wall to avoid it. Wiling the sweat off his brow, he glanced about the room quickly to find Sora crouching silently behind some rubble, either terrified or completely focused. Danny narrowed his eyes. "What are you still doing here?" He demanded. "It's dangerous!"

"My friend is still in here!" Sora cried back. "I'm not getting out of here without him!"

Rolling his eyes, Danny toggled invisibility and snatched the thermos out of his backpack (which was now underneath the remains of the lunch table he sat at only five minutes ago). Soaring back to where the dragon awaited him, he uncapped the thermos and drew the monstrosity inside, amulet and all. Once the blue beam of entrapment vanished, Danny snapped the cap back on and once again abandoned his visibility, diving back to the cafeteria and hiding behind a few broken tables to transform back.

Moments later, Sora tore through the rubble, uncovering Danny. "There you are," the brunette said, gasping for breath. "You okay?"

"Perfectly fine," Danny replied. _Hey, I'm not lying. Not really, anyway._ "Why didn't you run? That thing was dangerous."

Sora smirked. "Why didn't _you_?"

Danny chuckled. "Not every day you get to see Public Ghost Enemy Number One prove he's not actually an enemy."

"Speaking of that," Sora began, turning his gaze to the sky outside, "He's the same ghost I saw last night. Where'd he go?"

"Who knows?" Danny replied. "Come on. Let's get out of here before Lancer sticks us with cleanup duty."

* * *

It quickly became obvious that wherever Sora was from, an attack on the school usually warranted an instant ticket to home. Danny had to remind himself that Sora hadn't been to schools like Casper High before, however, and aided Sora in heading to fifth hour, which happened to be Mr. Lancer's class. Sora didn't particularly seem like the type to pick up a book and read, but Danny was still rather surprised to see the boy taking an interest in _The War of the Worlds_. He could have sworn the spiky-haired brunette was actually chuckling at some points. What could be so funny about a book that depicted a planet being invaded by aliens from Mars?

Of course, the only thing he expected less was for him to discuss it with the teacher, and that's just what Sora did. Eventually the conversation turned to how the stereotypes set forth about Martians and aliens attacking Earth could be far from accurate, and if Danny hadn't known better he probably would have thought that Sora had actually gone through such experiences. It wasn't until the bell rang that the debate came to a halt and Sora was allowed to escape the classroom, thus avoiding Lancer's wrath. Danny quickly followed.

"I never thought you were the book type, Sora," Tucker commented after hearing the abridged story from Danny once school was out.

"Not so much that as the book irked me," Sora replied, partially miffed and partially amused. "It's not entirely accurate. I don't think every alien out there would want to destroy a planet or anything. Personally I would have just wanted to look around."

_He says it like he's done it before,_ Danny commented to himself. _Weird. Where's he from, anyway?_

"Speaking of the supernatural," Sam interrupted, "I heard you stayed behind during the mess in the cafeteria with the dragon ghost."

"He did?" Tucker exclaimed. "Sora, are you nuts?"

Sora rubbed his neck casually. "Not really. Danny got stuck in there and I wasn't leaving without him."

"You're either brave or insane," Tucker replied, a worried look crossing his face. "That dragon ghost isn't that high on the threat meter compared with some other ones, but you've got no way of defending yourself. You could have gotten killed."

"Looks can be deceiving," Sora said simply, grinning at no one in particular.

"You said the same thing when Dash nearly beat you to a pulp," Danny retorted. "Though I don't know what you did to him, I don't think you'd stand a chance against any ghosts around here."

"Except the Box Ghost," Tucker corrected.

"Yeah," Danny agreed. "Except the Box Ghost."

There was a small bout of snickering from the three of them while Sora simply stared on. "Um…is there something I'm missing?" he finally asked.

"Not really," Sam informed him. "The Box Ghost is more of a nuisance than a threat. Even an amateur ghost hunter will get him on the first try with only half the effort."

Sora grinned oddly and let the issue on the local pest slide. "Speaking of ghosts," he began, "When that dragon attacked there was that other ghost fighting it. Didn't your parents mention him at dinner last night, Danny?"

Danny stiffened, even while walking. "Inviso-Bill?"

"Yeah."

While Sam and Tucker exchanged glances, Danny stuttered. "Ah, well…he's pretty well-known around here. Can't really go long without seeing him. Inviso-Bill isn't his real name, either."

"It's not?" Sora replied, blinking.

"Of course not," Sam replied blandly. "Who would want to be referred to as a transparent receipt?"

"Then what's his real name?" Sora asked. "Before I came here I was told he was a rogue ghost."

"That's actually pretty accurate," Tucker pointed out. "Especially for a ghost fighting other ghosts."

Danny shot Tucker an unsure look before making a desperate attempt to change the subject. "You guys wanna go to the Nasty Burger? I need to pay off my tab anyway."

"Sounds okay to me," Sam replied. "I'm free all week."

"Same here," Tucker added. "How about you, Sora?"

Sora just shrugged. "I don't mind. I'd like to have a look around here anyway."

Danny caught a strange look in Sora's eye; the boy obviously wanted to do a lot more than just look around. He was searching for something; that much he was certain of. Of course, Danny couldn't come right out and question Sora about it unless he wanted to risk exposure. He'd have to keep his head low until he figured this guy out.

Although Sora was acting suspiciously, he wasn't really grating on Danny's nerves at all. The spiky-haired brunette was actually a pretty cheerful guy, regardless of whether or not he had secrets of his own to keep. He was like one of those guys that had gone through hell but somehow managed to keep a smile on their face. _Who knows what he's thinking,_ Danny thought. _Of course, if he finds out my secret I can demand his. I guess it'll run down to whichever comes first. After all, I can't tell yet whether or not he's an enemy or a friend.  
_

The group had gone only a few blocks when Sora suddenly stiffened. Danny and his friends were about to ask him what was wrong when the foreigner's gaze narrowed and his eyes traveled to the park to their right. Danny clenched his teeth, staying alert in the case that his ghost sense would go off, but it wasn't long when they found what caught Sora's attention.

A huge black shape lunged out of the ground and tackled Sora to the sidewalk. Danny quickly made out its figure: it was some humanoid creature about the size of Sora himself, but it seemed mutated and hunched over. A pair of long antenna protruded from its skull and it donned a pair of fiercely glowing yellow eyes. Sora reflexively kicked at the beast but it had latched onto him well, and Danny immediately made to drag the monster off of him.

"What's going on?!" Sam cried as she helped in the effort to pull the dark creature off of their new friend.

Sora didn't seem interested in answering. "Get off!" he shouted angrily at the beast as though it would listen. It didn't. There was a sudden spark of electricity between the two and the creature flew backward, landing deftly on the pavement. It quickly recovered, racing forward at Sora again.

Danny stood only for a split second in shock. _What _is_ that thing?_ He thought desperately as he leapt back into the fray. _It didn't set my ghost sense off, so it can't be a ghost. I can't go ghost now, but maybe I'll be able to do enough to get that thing out of our hands._ As the monster once again lunged for Sora, Danny raced forward, violently dragging the boy out of the way. As the monster slammed against the pavement, he swiftly and discretely shot a weak ectoplasm blast at it, knocking the creature backward.

He was about to launch another assault when the beast vanished into black vapors. As the four of them watched, a glowing, heart-shaped crystal floated slowly into the sky before vanishing.

* * *

So much for laying low. Things are definitely heating up, now. Or something. Sorry if it was too short, but this seemed like a nice place to end! n.n


	4. Tension Rising

Ladies and Gentlemen, humans and ghosts, I present to you chapter four!

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Four: Tension Rising  
**

* * *

Danny stared in disbelief as the monster vanished from before them, the light emerging from it rising into the sky and disappearing. Whatever that thing was, Sora didn't look too surprised – or pleased – to see it. Releasing his friend, he stared blankly at the spot where their attacker once stood. "What _was_ that?" he asked in a near-whisper.

"I take it those aren't a local variety of ghost," Sora said to no one in particular.

Tucker and Sam glanced at Danny, whom shook his head vigorously. "I doubt that was a ghost," he said, hoping to distract Sora from the silent exchange between his friends. "I've never seen that thing before. At least it's gone."

For a moment, Sora still seemed rather on-edge, but he quickly grinned and shrugged it off. "Yeah, you're right."

"Come on," Tucker said, waving the two over. "Let's go already. I'm starving."

The group made their way down the block to the Nasty Burger where they went inside and began placing orders. Sora took a bit longer than the others deciding what he wanted, but eventually chose the same thing Danny was ordering (the name of the restaurant apparently didn't rub well with Sora, and he concluded that if Danny was eating it, it was edible). After they sat down, they began talking.

"Rough first day here," Sora said oddly, poking at the napkin case. "Does this always happen?"

"Not always," Sam replied. "Usually it's a bit less boring, aside from ghost attacks every now and then."

"The repair guys get plenty of business because of it though," Tucker pointed out, biting into his burger.

"I'd imagine so," Sora commented. "After seeing the hole that dragon put in the wall at school and hearing that this sort of thing isn't exactly rare, I think they'd keep pretty busy."

"They're getting a lot better at it," Danny added. "Last time that Dragon attacked it demolished one of the girl's bathrooms and they had it fixed in a day or two."

"Unless you count about half the plumbing being out of commission," Sam grumbled, poking at her salad.

Sora grinned awkwardly and stood. "I'll be right back," he said quickly before making his way to the back of the restaurant for the restrooms.

Danny watched his friend closely but discretely. Once the spiky-haired foreigner was out of sight and earshot, he leaned in. "I don't know what's going on," he began, "But I get the feeling Sora's seen that thing before."

"He _is_ acting suspicious," Tucker added. "I've never seen someone stare at a computer the way he did. It was like he was expecting it to grow a pair of limbs and beat him up."

"I'd fully expect that if Technus was haunting the computer," Sam pointed out.

"That's not all," Danny continued. "While everyone else ran out of the cafeteria during that ghost attack, he stayed behind and kept looking for me. I don't know how brave he is, but that's just nuts. I even told him to get out of there…as Phantom, of course."

"I dunno," Sam thought aloud. "He's acting strange, but he's not from here. Maybe wherever he's from stuff is different?"

"He says his family is in the military," Danny said firmly, "So they're constantly going places." He peered around to make sure no one else was looking. "But that black _thing_ wasn't the only weird thing that happened. When it attacked him I thought I saw some big electric shock and it got thrown off of him. It had to have been him; if the monster had used it Sora would have been the one getting thrown around."

"Electro-kinesis?" Tucker suggested.

"Maybe," Danny agreed. "He got rid of Dash earlier today, but I'm not really sure what he did. I'm not sure if this is related, but when I was fighting the Dragon Ghost, some weird shield popped up around me."

"A new ghost power?"

"No, I would have known if _I_ had done it. I'm pretty sure something else was at play there…"

* * *

Sora locked up a stall in the bathroom after making sure no one was inside to hear. He swiftly pulled a small phone from his pocket and hit the speed-dial, holding the receiver up to his ear and waiting anxiously. It was only moments before a gruff, accented voice picked up on the other end. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Cid."

The engineer grunted. "Got anything to report, Sora?"

"Not much," Sora replied hurriedly, "But what I do have is pretty important. This Danny kid that I'm with is acting pretty suspicious. He's definitely got secrets to hide, but I'm not sure whether they're good or bad. That, and I managed to catch a glimpse of the Rogue Ghost. I'm pretty sure he's on our side, but he's acting just as strange as Danny."

There was a creaking sound as Cid apparently sat back in his chair. "Not bad. Anything else?"

"We ran into a Neoshadow earlier, but it's gone now. I had to use Thundaga on it to get it off of me…self-defensive measures. Something else hit it and it just up and vanished."

"There are definitely heartless there, then," Cid grumbled. "This'll be a bit harder than we thought. Look, I can't send any reinforcements, so make this trip quick. Get in, find the keyhole, seal it and get out of there, but don't blow your cover. We can't be breaking any rules if we can help it, got that?"

Sora nodded reluctantly. "Got it. I'll see what I can do about the heartless. It'll be hard not revealing myself though; I'm pretty sure Danny already suspects something."

"Then be careful." There was a small _click_ on the other end of the line and Cid spoke no further.

Stuffing the phone back in his pocket, Sora made for the door to head back to the table. What was before a simple mission had now become much more complicated, and he had a feeling his secret wouldn't stay just that for much longer.

* * *

Danny watched carefully as Sora returned to their table. The foreigner still seemed mildly content, but Danny could easily tell that something was bothering him. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder and cocked an eyebrow in concern. "You okay, Sora?"

Sora just smiled. "I'm okay," he replied, taking a bite out of his burger. "I've had worse days."

"Like?" Sam asked, obviously not convinced.

"Well, long story short, my friends and I were visiting a jungle and we got separated in about the worst way possible. I ended up getting cornered by a leopard."

Danny was shocked, to say the least. Even Sam was wide-eyed, and Tucker's jaw would have hit the floor if it hadn't still been attached to his head. "How'd you get out of that one?" the techno-geek asked, aghast.

Sora shrugged. "I just did. It wasn't easy, but I managed to get out alive."

_That would explain why he acts so calm around ghosts and monsters I guess,_ Danny reasoned. _He's obviously seen worse._ "Amity Park should be a snap for you to adjust to then," Danny said, hoping to lighten the mood.

"I hope so," Sora replied, finishing off his meal. "You guys don't often get…" he paused. "…those black things around here, do you?"

"Not really," Sam replied. "Usually it's just ghosts and really bad ghost hunters."

Tucker took a casual sip of his lemonade and stared out the window. "That thing that was out there just now," he began slowly. "What do you think it was?"

Sora stiffened.

"Who knows?" Danny said, intervening. "Hopefully there won't be any others. If there are, we'll be fine."

"We will?" Tucker began. A combat boot quickly met his shin underneath the table. "Ow! I, uh, I mean we will! Right, Sam?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Sure we will."

Noticing that everyone had finished their food, Danny called for the check, paying off half his tab while at it. The group stood, finishing their sodas and headed out the door. Danny decided to let the matter of the mysterious monster slide…for now.

* * *

Thankfully, the next day was Saturday, so Danny didn't have to worry much about going to bed on time. Instead, he headed to his room and flipped on the computer, ready for a round of Doomed. Sora still had to sort out a few things in his pack, so he headed up with him. It wasn't long before the game caught Sora's attention. Grinning, Danny cast a glance over to his friend. "Wanna give it a try?"

Sora nodded enthusiastically. "Sure. It's been ages since I played a video game."

After showing Sora some basic controls, Danny set up a character for his friend. After choosing a name (Sora decided on "kingdomkey"), Sora began playing.

Danny was very surprised with how good Sora was at playing the game. His targeting was flawless, and his reflexes were simply amazing. Within a single hour, he had already caught up with Tucker.

_Kingdomkey: hey, is that u tucker?_

_Friar Tuck: ya its me. whos this?_

_Kingdomkey: sora_

_Friar Tuck: hey sora! danny letting u play doomed?_

_Kingdomkey: yeah. i haven't played computer games in ages._

"I'll be right back," Danny said, standing and heading out of his room. "Do you mind?"

Sora shook his head. "Not at all," he replied, quickly getting back to the game.

Nodding, Danny exited his room and headed downstairs. Quickly making sure his parents and sister were not home yet, he transformed into a ghost and took off out the window for a few quick rounds around town, forming his legs into a spectral tail to allow for more speed. _I can't stay out long,_ he reminded himself. _Just go over the hotspots and let the ghost sense do the talking. If nothing comes up, then we're clear._

After quickly going over the cafeteria and mall and finding nothing, Danny checked the warehouses, docks and the Nasty Burger for other signs of ghost activity, and received none. Relieved, he headed back to his home when a dark shape caught his eye. When he found out what it was, his eyes widened considerably. "That thing is back?!" he cried, staring at the black humanoid creature. "I thought we already took care of it!"

The monster glanced up in the air, noticing him. Danny barely had time to wince as the monster scurried down the street, antennae waving wildly, making its way for Fentonworks. Danny flew at top speed toward his home, hoping to warn Sora, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw not one, but many similar beasts hurrying that way. Danny winced and sped for his bedroom window. Fenton or Phantom, Sora was getting warned and evacuated.

Danny flew intangibly through the window and noticed Sora still playing Doomed. The brunette whirled around and stared wide-eyed at the ghost boy, shocked at the sudden appearance. "Wha-"

"It's not safe here," Danny said quickly. "There are monsters coming this way. We need to leave _now_."

"Monsters?" Sora exclaimed quietly. Without waiting for a reply from Danny, Sora raced to the window and looked out at the gathering black crowd. His eyes narrowed, and he cast a glance back at Danny. "I don't know who you are, but I'm not about to let these things hurt my friends. I'm fighting."

Danny nearly did a double-take. _Friends?_ He echoed. _Is he insane?_

Before the ghost-boy could stop him, Sora pushed open the window. "Cid's ganna kill me for this," he mumbled before taking a full-fledged leap outside. Danny blinked in shock before shaking out of his stupor and soaring through the window.

* * *

The telephone rang incessantly. After the third ring, Sam rolled her eyes and reluctantly picked it up, holding it to her ear while flipping through a scrapbook. "Hello, Sam Manson here."

"_Sam, it's Tucker. Do you know where Danny is?"_

Sam blinked. Tucker _never_ sounded this frantic unless something serious was going on. "No, I don't. What's going on?"

"_I was playing Doomed with Sora earlier and he just stopped responding. No away notification or anything. Danny normally finishes making rounds about now, but when I tried calling him he didn't pick up."_

"Are you sure you're not overreacting?" Sam asked, sitting back in her bed.

"_I hope not. Let me check his webcam."_ There was a short silence accompanied by a few clicks and a shocked gasp. _"Sam, we've got trouble."_

The goth sat upright immediately. "I'm listening."

"_Neither of them are on the webcam, and Danny's window is open. I was looking out mine just now and I saw one of those black things heading down the street."_

Sam knew immediately where Tucker was heading with this. "I'm going to Danny's. You coming?"

"_You know I am. I'll take the scooter."_ There was a click as Tucker hung up.

There was no time to waste. Sam hung up the phone and charged downstairs, not bothering to close her scrapbook or her bedroom door. She completely ignored her parents as she raced outside, getting on her own scooter and racing down the street. She didn't have to go far when she saw a good number of dark monsters congregating at Fentonworks. What caught her eye the most, however, was Danny Phantom and Sora standing outside right in the middle of the chaos.

* * *

I nearly ran into Writer's Block on this chapter, but thankfully it didn't last long. I appologize if it's kind of awkward. O.o


	5. Nowhere to Run

OH SNAP IS THAT VL-

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Five: Nowhere to Run**

* * *

Sora clenched his teeth, grunting as he landed nimbly on the ground near the Fenton's front door. The heartless had found him, and now they were gathering. He hadn't bothered trying to find Danny on his way out; if the house was invaded while he was searching then the mess would have simply gotten messier. He had to end this before it got out of hand, and if it meant breaking the rules then he would do it.

"What are these things?" the ghost-boy next to him asked as he flew down to ground level.

_Neoshadows,_ Sora thought gravely. _I hate these things. _"Enemies," he answered, deciding not to reveal too much. "We have to get rid of them before Danny gets hurt."

The ghost blinked. "Wha?"

"He's still inside the building," Sora grunted. "I'm not about to let these things tear apart my friend."

"Then I'll get rid of them," the ghost replied, firing a green ray in the middle of the crowd, causing the monsters that were hit to vanish.

Sora narrowed his eyes. "You aren't fighting them alone," he said, summoning forth the keyblade in a bright flash of light. Ignoring the shocked cry and stare from the ghost, Sora lunged into the fray, slashing apart any heartless that dared to come near him. When one came too close for comfort, he fired off a flurry of thunder spells to dispose of them. He was soon joined by a few blasts, punches and kicks from the ghost-boy next to him. As they fought, the monsters gathered, closing in and attacking furiously.

"There's way too many of these!" The ghost cried, firing a powerful beam of energy at the front of the crowd and spreading it sideways. "Is there any end to them?!"

"Not that I know of," Sora replied, a whirling Firaga surrounding him momentarily when a few of the heartless got too close. "We'll have to take out every last one that's here already. If we're lucky the rest will run away before then."

The ghost didn't look too confident.

As the crowd of heartless barely thinned, Sora made out the forms of Sam and Tucker approaching at top speed. They were calling for them, but over the chaos of the battle, hardly anything could be made out. Sora sliced through a number of the beasts and was about to strike another when one caught him from behind. The weight alone knocked Sora to the ground, but just as it reached its hand into the air, preparing to plunge it toward Sora, a blast of green energy threw it aside and demolished it. Shouting a quick thanks, Sora scrambled to his feet.

"We can't keep this up," the ghost grunted as he fired at another heartless. "Is there a way we can get rid of them quickly?"

"Not that I know of," Sora replied, gasping for breath and parrying an attack. "If I knew it was going to take so long I would have stopped this ages ago."

The ghost narrowed his eyes. "Then _I'll_ stop it," he said gravely. "Cover your ears and get behind me."

Sora had no idea what his accomplice was about to do, but after seeing the serious look in his eyes he quickly scampered behind him. The ghost took a deep breath, letting loose a loud, ghostly cry that echoed across the area. The black beasts around him began to shriek and cry out in pain as the spectral scream slammed into them, vaporizing them upon impact. As the sonic assault spread across the vicinity, shattering windows and beasts in its wake, his comrade's ghostly appearance began to peel off. Underneath the guise was a normal t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and ink-black hair. When the scream finally ended, the boy standing in front of him fell to his knees, gasping for breath, his body trembling in exhaustion.

Warily standing and making his way over, Sora looked briefly through the slowly clearing black mist to make sure that Sam and Tucker were alright. When he turned back to the ghost, he found a familiar person kneeling on the ground.

"Danny?!"

* * *

Vlad Masters slammed his fist onto his desk angrily, causing his cat to scamper away. _Curse you, Daniel…I almost had it this time!_ He spun around in his desk to watch the clouds drift by, the window still smudged from the rain two nights ago. Everything seemed peaceful enough, but Vlad was furious. Once more, his plans had been completely foiled by that accursed _teenager_. To make matters worse, another boy had joined forces with him and had proven himself a perilous threat.

The man rolled his eyes, pressing a finger against the intercom button. He knew only one person that would help in this predicament. That mysterious stranger. It was not long before the butler came up on the intercom. "Do you need anything, Mayor Masters?"

"Yes," Vlad replied, eyes narrowing. "Please send our new assistant to my office immediately. I have need of his _services_."

"Yes, sir." There was a small click as the intercom shut off.

Less than a minute later, the door opened and a black-cloaked figure strode in. "You called for me, Mister Masters?"

"Of course," Vlad replied, grinning. "I have a task of utmost importance for you. I'm sure you've heard of Amity Park's new visitor…"

* * *

While Danny was a nervous wreck, having revealed his secret to Sora, the foreigner was surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal, though still a bit shaken from the encounter with the monsters. Sora and Tucker had helped bring Danny up to his room while Sam got some snacks for them. After the four had settled into a good place, Tucker began the conversation on a strangely awkward note. "What happened out there?"

"The Ghostly Wail happened," Danny replied, rubbing his head. "I usually save it at last resort, but we were running out of energy…and options. I don't know what those creatures were, but I wasn't about to let them invade my house."

"They're called heartless," Sora began, his eyes staring harshly at the ground and his lips pressed into a firm, thin line.

Danny blinked, but Sam was the one to speak. "Heartless?"

"Creatures without hearts," Sora replied, nodding. "There's many different kinds, but that one is one of the more common ones. I haven't seen that many at once since about four months ago. They're drawn to the darkness in people's hearts, and they'll attack until that heart is gone."

"They'd kill someone?" Danny asked, eyes widening.

"They're capable of a lot more than killing," Sora continued. "If you let them, they can destroy an entire world, and they've done it before."

"You can't be serious," Tucker said.

"I am," Sora replied. "But there's still one thing I want to know." He turned to Danny. "What did you do out there? Was that really you?"

Danny was about to respond when an idea came to mind. He crossed his arms suspiciously. "A tradeoff," he began.

Sora blinked. "Huh…?"

"You tell me what secret _you're_ hiding," Danny explained, "And I'll tell you _mine_."

"Fair enough," Sora replied. "You saved my life more than once. I owe you that much anyway, even if it does mean breaking a few rules." He reached out in front of him, eyes closed. A shower of sparkles appeared in mid air, and in it materialized a sword-length, key-shaped weapon of sorts, the handle completely wrapping around the grip.

"What _is_ that?" Sam asked.

"It's called the keyblade," Sora said, grabbing the handle and bringing it to rest in his lap. "The heartless fear it more than anything, so it's one of their prime targets. I didn't bring it out earlier because it would attract them, not to mention cause a disturbance. It's one of the universe's most powerful weapons, and it can unlock and lock anything."

Danny stared, wide-eyed. His ghost sense wasn't going off at the mysterious weapon, but he could simply feel something coming from it. It was like a powerful vibe going through the air around them; almost entrancing, but still calm. One thing, however, still bothered him. "You weren't walking around with it yesterday," he said. "Where does it come from?"

Sora shook his head. "Even I don't know," he replied. "It's just there. It's sort of got a mind of its own. It knows when I need it or want it to appear and it'll just show up."

"So you have a huge key-shaped weapon," Sam began. "What about that monster we took out earlier when it was alone…or what I heard you did to Dash?"

"Magic," Sora replied simply, grinning. It was hard to tell whether or not he was kidding. Ignoring their odd stares, he nodded to Danny. "What about you?"

Danny blinked. "Me?"

Sora nodded. "I told you my secret. You said you'd tell me yours."

_I _do_ owe him that much,_ Danny thought, standing up and walking to the center of his room. "Alright. Here goes." He closed his eyes and focused. As he did, the familiar sensation of weightlessness surrounded him and he felt the twin rings passing over him. Transforming his appearance. As he opened his now-green eyes, he saw Sora staring at him, shocked. "I'm half-ghost," he explained, "Or you could say I have ghost powers. Around here I'm known as Danny Phantom."

"You were the one fighting the dragon at school today?" Sora asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "It's not the first time I have, either."

Sora seemed completely enthralled. "What all can you do?"

Danny grinned, partially thankful for a chance to show off. "The usual stuff. I can go intangible, turn invisible, fly, and overshadow people. I think I've got an increase in strength and speed, and I can fire ectoplasm beams from my hands. Aside from that I think I've got cyrokinesis and some odd form of telekinesis."

"And the ghostly wail," Sam corrected.

"That too," Danny said, wincing. "I try not to use that unless at last resort because it uses up a lot of my energy and forces me to change back."

"Who all knows about this?" Sora asked. "Aside from Sam and Tucker, I mean."

"Jazz knows," Danny replied, "But she never told me she knew until after a huge mess a while back. The mayor knows, and he constantly uses it as a way to push my buttons unless I want the world knowing who I am."

Sora whistled lowly. "Harsh."

"Tell me about it," Danny groaned. "He's constantly trying to frame me – which he succeeds at constantly – and get close to my mom. It's horrible, and to make matters worse he's half-ghost just like I am."

Something sparked in Sora's eyes, and he hesitated before speaking. "Was he recently seen in the company of a shady group of people?"

_What's with the sudden question about Vlad? _"I haven't seen him at all lately," Danny replied, "But I wouldn't be surprised if he was."

Sora relaxed, but only slightly. "I'm trying to keep an eye out for people like that," he responded. "Guys in black cloaks hardly mean any good."

"Black cloaks?"

All eyes turned to Tucker, whom had for once placed his PDA aside. Sora was all ears. "Yeah, black cloaks. You see anyone like that?"

Tucker nodded. "Actually, I did. Someone wearing a long black trench coat was headed for Vlad's place a few days ago. I saw him when I was headed for the computer store."

"Vlad?" Sora echoed.

"The mayor," Danny replied, "And also my number one enemy. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one behind all this."

"I'm up for getting to the bottom of it if anyone else is," Tucker piped up.

The agreement was silent. _But how are we going to figure this out?_ Danny thought, furrowing his eyebrows. _The only one I know that can help is..._ After a moment, a thought clicked into place and a plan began to form. "Let's head to the lab," Danny said firmly, changing back to human form. "I've got an idea."

* * *

This one is sorta short, too, but I hope it'll suffice for now. Next chapter soon. I really should get the next bit of "Origins" up...


	6. Time Will Tell

If you don't get the pun in the chapter title now, you will.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Six: Time Will Tell**

* * *

Danny grabbed a few jackets from the hall closet and made his way downstairs with Sam, Tucker and Sora following. He hadn't told them what he was planning, but the look in his eyes had told his friends everything…sans Sora, whom was still quite unfamiliar with the halfa. As he led his friends to the downstairs staircase, he began explaining his plan.

"I know someone in the Ghost Zone that can help," he began, "He's helped me before more than once; I have a lot of trust in him."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sam asked. "If your parents come home and find the Speeder missing, they'll tan our hides."

"I'm the only one that can move on my own in there," Danny replied, opening the door to the lab and hauling in the jackets with him. "Besides, you don't _have_ to go. I'm sure I can handle it on my own. I've done it before."

"I'm in this as much as you are," Sora said firmly. "I'm not going to be left behind."

"Sora doesn't know how to fly the Speeder," Tucker pointed out, "So I'm here to pilot it."

"And I'm here to make sure that none of you get into more trouble than you can handle," Sam added somewhat dryly.

"I just have one question," Sora said somewhat quietly. "What's the Ghost Zone, and how do we get there?"

"The Ghost Zone is basically the reverse side of this world," Danny began. "Kind of like a parallel dimension. We're getting there through my parents' portal."

Sora blinked. "You mean it _works_?!"

Danny chuckled a bit humorlessly. "Yeah, it works alright. You could say it's the source of all my problems." Casting aside the irony of the statement, Danny quickly went to the control panel to the right of the portal and punched in a few settings. "I've left Jazz a note in her room. If Mom and Dad come home, they'll be told we're in town. The only problem is we need to be back by weekend curfew or we're going to be in huge trouble."

"We've got plenty of time," Tucker said, tapping at his PDA, "Just so long as we don't run into any obstacles on the way." He paused for a moment. "Uh…Danny, where _are_ we going anyway?"

"I've gone into the Ghost Zone alone a lot, so you probably won't remember him quite as well as I do." Danny stepped back, watching the doors of the portal open to reveal a swirling green mass before them. "How's it going over there?"

Tucker was already climbing into the Specter Speeder and helping Sam in. "We're just about loaded. We need a Thermos?"

"I'll bring one just in case," Danny replied. "You never know when Walker or some other ghost will try to make a mockery of this mess."

Tucker was about to help Sora into the Speeder when the brunette simply jumped in. After a brief moment of confusion, the techno-geek closed the hatch and began to start up the hovering automobile. Danny nodded in approval, swapping into his ghost form as he saw Sam and Tucker put on their Fenton Phones (Sora gave the device an odd look and only put them on after Sam gave a brief explanation on what they did). A familiar whining noise echoed about the lab as the Speeder started up. "All systems ready to go," Tucker announced.

Danny nodded, jumping into a hover and forming his legs into a spectral tail. Swiftly, he flew into the portal, and the Speeder followed. The familiar sensation of a chill running down his spine accompanied entrance to the Ghost Zone, but Danny had been to this place so many times that he simply brushed it off as a normal occurrence.

The entire area was familiar. The eerie black and green swirling void, the endless doors, the occasional floating island…it was a lot like outer space. The first time he had gone in, he had been terrified, but after several trips it had become oddly commonplace.

What was stranger was Sora's reaction. His eyes were wide, but he seemed strangely calm. "Is this where all ghosts live?"

"_Most_ ghosts," Danny corrected. "It's sort of like their home world. They still like to come into ours and haunt places. Amity Park is the most haunted spot in the country, thanks to my parents' portal. Most of the ghosts end up going through there, and I'm left with cleanup duty."

"So, Danny," Tucker began, hoping to change the subject, "Who is this friend we're going to see? I can only really think of two ghosts that have helped you before, and I'm not too keen on either of them."

"Frostbite's got his hands full," Danny stated. "He's been a mentor to me in certain ways, but he's got a tribe to lead. Besides, as knowledgeable as he is, I doubt he'd know quite as much as the one we're going to."

Sam's expression became stony. "You don't mean…"

Danny nodded. "Yeah. He's bound to know plenty about this mess."

"Who are we talking about here?" Sora inquired, wincing as a lava-lamp-esque blob of ectoplasm swept upward past them.

"A ghost named Clockwork," Danny replied, his eyes narrowing. "At one point he was ordered to 'eliminate my future,' and he sort of did – just not the way he was expected to."

"Sounds sketchy to me," Sora noted aloud, crossing his arms and cocking an eyebrow. "You trust him?"

Danny felt himself inwardly grinning. _Sora's pretty perceptive about all this._ "He's not exactly the friendliest ghost I know, but he's definitely trustworthy. He's helped me more than once."

"I'm not so sure about this," Sam protested.

"Yeah, man," Tucker added. "Didn't he ring his clock tower bell with you a few times?"

"My head hurt for weeks when that mess was over," Danny agreed, rolling his eyes, "But he's not all bad. He's just got his own way of doing things." As they continued on, the ghost-boy knew that Sam and Tucker weren't keen on the idea at all, but he also knew that this was their best bet. His confidence, however, seemed to melt a bit as he approached the enormous tower where the ghost he was looking for resided.

"He lives in _there_?" Sora asked, swallowing nervously.

"Wow," Sam commented, apparently agreeing with Sora. "It's just as creepy on the outside as it is on the inside."

"And intimidating," Danny added. "Come on. We don't have all day."

The group parked the speeder outside what was apparently the more obvious entrance and activated the cloaking device before stepping in. Sora was rather amused with the concept that gravity didn't really exist in the Ghost Zone unless they were on the islands and bits of land scattered about, but he quickly focused to the situation at hand (leaving the others to wonder how anyone could possibly change gears so quickly) and the group entered what could have easily passed for the inside of a clock tower – specifically the part where most of the gears and cogs were.

"I've been to a clock tower before," Sora commented quietly, his voice still somehow echoing about the halls, "But it wasn't quite as creepy as this one. Then again I really didn't go inside…"

"Clockwork isn't much more consoling when it comes to the fright factor," Sam replied a bit dryly.

"You've got that right," Danny added as he floated along, clearly remembering the first time he met Clockwork. The experience had been anything but pleasant. "He's hard to read, if you know what I mean. I still barely know why he's ever bothered helping me."

The familiar sensation of Danny's ghost sense going off alerted him. Without warning, he flew to his friends, grabbing Sora and Tucker and shoving them behind the nearest gear before going back for Sam. Before they could protest, he held a finger to his lips and mouthed out the words "Someone's coming."

Sam and Tucker seemed to take their cue and placed a hand on Danny's shoulder while the ghost-boy had to take Sora's arm. He quickly conjured his invisibility, watching quietly and carefully. Through the "entrance" of the room appeared a red-eyed pale blue ghost wearing a dark violet cape, a staff adorned with a clock in his hands. He appeared to take on the form of an adult, but Danny knew better: this ghost was none other than Clockwork, and his form was constantly shifting. Following him, however, were two identical, one-eyed ghosts wearing similar black capes, their clawed hands resting at their sides.

A heated, but short, discussion took place between the trio until the two cyclopes left, leaving the master of time alone. He swiftly but calmly entered the chamber, his glance flickering over Danny's hiding spot. A moment of silence passed before he turned away and spoke. "You may come out, Danny Phantom. There is no one else here."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Danny released his hold on Sora and stood. "Am we here at a bad time?" Tucker asked quickly.

"Yes," Clockwork replied, earning a wince from the entire group but Sora. "The Observants are in a mess about the latest threat to both worlds, wanting me to do their dirty work as usual."

"Would this threat involve monsters of darkness feeding on hearts?" Danny inquired.

Clockwork froze momentarily before nodding, but still did not face the group. "Yes. I take it you are here for help?"

"You could say that."

It was then that Sora spoke up. "We need to know who brought them here and who's commanding them," he began, his calm tone barely masking his anxiety. "Do you know anything?"

Clockwork finally turned to face the group, and his narrowed eyes quickly darted to Sora. "The keyblade master," he observed quietly. "You came at the right time."

All eyes turned to Sora. The brunette blinked. "You know about me?"

"And about how you broke the rules," Clockwork added, prompting Sora to wince. He quickly continued. "It couldn't be helped. The heartless would have done away with the time for secrets at a much worse time had you not stepped in when you did." He turned away. "As far as I have been able to tell, the supplier is anonymous. That much should tell you plenty, Sora."

The keyblade master was about to ask how Clockwork knew his name when Danny held a hand in front of him to silence him. "What about who's commanding them?" the ghost-boy asked.

Clockwork didn't seem too happy to dwell on the subject, but he continued anyway. "The identity of one commanding this darkness is a familiar one. You already know of him, Danny Phantom. He is a ghost of incredible power."

_That's Clockwork for you,_ Danny grumbled inwardly. _He never gives you a real answer._

"As for how to eliminate them," Clockwork continued, "Isn't that your mission, Sora?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, but there's something I have to do to keep them from destroying this world first. If I don't do that then trying to eliminate them will be pointless."

Danny glanced at Sora with an odd look of curiosity on his face. When Sora had mentioned the world being destroyed, his voice had cracked oddly. _Sora seemed like such a cheerful guy when we didn't have this problem yesterday, and now he's so serious. He's seen way too much for a kid._

A chill crept up Danny's back and he felt a blue mist escape his lips. Clockwork quickly noticed, nodding, and Danny dove for a corner, taking his friends with him. As he watched, the one-eyed ghosts known as Observants entered once more. "Have you completed the task, Clockwork?" One of them asked. "You realize that if this threat is not dealt with soon…"

Clockwork did not face them. "Everything is fine," he said simply. "Everything is the way it's supposed to be."

"The threat still persists."

"I know what I'm doing," the cloaked ghoul replied coldly. "Don't you have things to observe other than me?"

The Observants vanished immediately, and the group crept out of their hiding place. "I take it you don't like them much," Sora said quietly.

"All they do is observe," Clockwork retorted. "They watch and never act. I always get stuck with their dirty work. Now, is there anything else you need from me, or are you content wasting my time?"

"We know that whoever's supplying these things isn't the same one giving them orders," Danny recalled, "But can you tell us anything else about these heartless things? We know they feed on the darkness in people's hearts."

"Your new friend has not told you much, I see."

Sora shifted uncomfortably. "Some things are better left unsaid," he protested.

Clockwork's eyes narrowed. "Be that as it may, we don't have _time_ for secrets. The Heartless must be dealt with, and I can only do so much to slow them down."

"Wait a minute," Sam began. "Most ghosts could care less about the human world, even if it is linked to the Ghost Zone. Why are the Observants so keen on getting rid of these things?"

"You are right in the fact that ghosts don't particularly care about your world," Clockwork said lowly, "But there is one fact that has further pushed the Observants' efforts to get rid of them." He paused, his eyes gazing about, glaring at the shadows.

Danny was about to ask what was wrong when Sora summoned the keyblade, his own stance alert. On cue, ten of the monsters from before appeared, hissing angrily, their glowing yellow eyes narrowed in a glare.

Clockwork glared right back at them. "As you can see, they're in the Ghost Zone, as well."

* * *

So...a more decently-sized chapter. Clockwork is a hard character to write out.


	7. Suspicion

I'm so sorry for the slow update! I ran into writer's block! I'm better now though :D

In response to several reviews, I can't make any guarantees about the story thus far. If you keep an eye out, however, there will be hints...

As some of you know, next month is National Novel Writing Month. I'll disappear for that duration, but I will return, I promise. Hopefully I'll get a book written in that time…

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Seven: Suspicion**

* * *

Danny groaned as he took to the air, the black monsters beneath him hissing angrily at their retreating prey. "Geez, these things are all over the place!"

"They generally are," Sora grumbled. A quick flash emitted from the tip of his weapon and thunder struck several of the heartless, vaporizing them into black mist that soon faded. Taking the cue to begin, Danny fired off a short round of ectoplasmic blasts and finished a few more off. Thankfully, the group was small, and only a few were left after the barrage of attacks from both ghost boy and keyblade wielder. The remaining heartless lunged at their opposition, only to be met with the shaft of the keyblade, shoving them off. Before another move could be made, the remaining heartless scampered back, as though in fear, but were quickly disposed of by a handy display of Sora's swordsmanship.

"Is that the last of them?" Tucker asked. Sam nodded, obviously sharing the sentiment.

"I doubt it," Sora replied. "Heartless aren't easy to stop."

"We should put out some kind of warning about these things," Sam suggested. "At least to keep people safe."

"That's not a good idea," Clockwork protested softly but sternly.

"Let me guess," Danny began. "It would 'alter the time stream' or something?"

"No," was the time master's reply, much to Danny's surprise. "It would be against the rules."

"You sound like Walker."

Clockwork gave Danny a quick glare which quickly silenced him, but he continued with the subject at hand. "While warning the populace of this threat may seem a good idea, it is best if you keep silent about it. The majority of the heartless will be drawn to keyblade, regardless of what you do."

"But what rules are there to follow?" Tucker asked. "This isn't like the laws of physics, is it?"

"No," Sora replied. "According to the rules, I'm not supposed to reveal certain things to you guys, like where I'm from and things like that. It's about keeping order. If everything is chaotic, the heartless will have an easier time taking over."

Sam snorted. "As if everything wasn't already chaotic before you came here."

The look on Sora's face at the goth's comment was indescribable. It was some mixture of pain, amusement and annoyance. "The chaos I'm referring to is something you might not want to experience."

Danny had a strange feeling that Sora had already been through what he was describing.

* * *

It hadn't taken long to come to a decision. The group of teenagers had already gotten into more than they should have, and according to Clockwork they were safer if they remained under cover (to which Tucker enthusiastically replied that it was what they did best). After they had carefully re-entered the human world via the portal and shut off the speeder, the group made their way upstairs to find that the Fentons had returned home. Judging by sound alone, Danny could tell that his mother was in the kitchen, Jazz was probably upstairs reading, and his father was in the living room avidly speaking with someone. The halfa shifted to human form cautiously. _Whoever this visitor is, he can wait, _He grumbled inwardly as he led Tucker and Sam to the door. "I'll meet you guys at the Nasty Burger tomorrow if I can," he said. "Sound good?"

"Fine with me," Sam replied. "My parents won't mind."

Tucker checked his PDA. "I'm free, too," he said. "You going to come, Sora?"

Sora grinned eagerly. "Of course! You can't leave me out of all the fun, right?"

After bidding his friends farewell, Danny closed the door carefully and turned to Sora. "So what now?"

The keyblade master blinked in minor confusion. "Why are you asking me?"

"You know more about them than I do," Danny began, heading for the staircase with Sora following close behind. "How do you normally handle them?"

"Long story short, I have to find something," Sora explained. "I can tell you more later. For now, it's easier to just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't hurt anyone."

Danny was about half-way up the staircase with Sora when his father's voice called out to him. "Danny! Can you come here for a moment?"

Sighing, Danny turned around. "I'll catch up in a moment. This shouldn't take long. You can play some Doomed if you want."

Sora nodded and headed up to Danny's room. As the halfa made his way down, he found that a familiar yet unpleasant face was waiting for him on the couch.

"It's been so _long_, Daniel! How have you been?" Vlad Masters asked in a sickeningly kind tone of voice.

_Monsters, ghosts, rules, staying under cover, and now I have to deal with Vlad? Sheesh…_ Danny glared back at the man before him. "Fine before you showed up," he growled. "What do you want?"

"Why, I'm _hurt_, Daniel!" Vlad exclaimed lightly, placing a hand daintily on his chest as though to exaggerate the point. "I'm only here to check on a few things. I can't have my favorite _hero_ getting hurt from these mysterious creatures, would I?"

Danny gritted his teeth and clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails threatened to draw blood from his palms. Vlad knew something, that much was certain, but there was no telling if and how he was going to get anything out of his arch-enemy. It took nearly all his focus to keep his eyes from shifting to their glowing green state as they tended to do when he was exceedingly frustrated and not in ghost form. "If you're so concerned, why don't you sic them onto someone else?"

Vlad smirked. "Really, Daniel, there's no need for suspicion! I'm here to look out for you!"

"I seriously doubt that."

Both Vlad and Danny turned their gaze to the staircase nearby. There stood Sora, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. Danny never thought Sora was capable of such an expression; it was apparently something the boy never made much use of.

"You must be the exchange student!" Vlad exclaimed. "I hear you come from a long way away. How are your parents back at home? Still wondering where you are, I assume?"

Sora stiffened at the comment, causing Danny to blink in confusion. Sora's parents had arrived to drop him off, hadn't they? Or was that another ruse to keep order? The keyblade master, however, quickly brushed off this comment and replied. "My _family_ is doing just fine," he hissed through his teeth. "I don't know who you are, sir, but you know way too much for whom you say you are. If I were you, I'd keep out of what you have no business in unless you really want to get hurt."

"And if it _is_ my business?" Vlad replied, narrowing his eyes and taking on his truly malicious tone while still managing to be quiet.

Surprisingly, however, Sora seemed to smirk. "Someone like you wouldn't last long."

Vlad was not without a retort. "Ah, but the way you put it, it sounds like _nobody_ has business with them. Someone your age and experience would barely last a few seconds against even a small crowd like the one that gathered here just a few hours earlier-"

The elder halfa's comment was cut short when, in the blink of an eye, Sora had dashed across the room and summoned the keyblade, the tip of it suddenly a fraction of an inch from the man's throat. A ringing silence rang through the room, interrupted by the sounds of the older Fentons in the laboratory working. Sora's glare made his earlier expression look like a simple frown. His eyes had narrowed to slits, his focus locked onto Vlad Masters so intently it was as though it could have been glued there. Vlad himself seemed only slightly disgruntled, but Danny knew that he was covering up his shock.

"You know _nothing_ about my experience," Sora snarled coldly, his anger seething in his words alone. Leaving things at that, he dismissed the keyblade right from where it was and stalked up the stairs, leaving Vlad and Danny to stare in stunned silence.

Moments later, however, Vlad resumed his usual façade. "Your new friend is quite testy, isn't he?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, not bothering to keep them from going green this time, and swept his gaze to his arch nemesis. "You know too much, don't you?"

"Now, now, Daniel, there's no need to be so angry." Vlad stood, brushing his pants off. "I'd keep an eye out if I were you. Your friend Sora is obviously hiding plenty from you."

"He's doing it to protect us," Danny retorted, "And he's saved my butt before. I trust him."

"But can you trust someone whom was once one of the enemy?"

Danny did a double-take. _One of the enemy? Who's he referring to?_

Vlad cast an over-dramatic look at the clock. "Oh, would you look at the time! It seems I am late for a conference. Tell your mother I said hello, will you?" And with that, Vlad took his leave.

It was the most confusing thing Danny had ever experienced. He was seething in anger at Vlad as he normally was, then he was in shock at Sora's response to him, and then there was the confusion about what Vlad had said about trusting one of the enemy. The concept wasn't new to him – he had to work with the very ghosts he had captured before to get out of more than one tight spot – but in the light of recent events, who exactly could he be referring to?

And on that note, what else could Sora be hiding?

* * *

So, then. A decently-sized chapter for once. Yippee! Well, close, but still.

TO MY READERS! Which ghosts do you people want to see in this fic? Clockwork and Plasmius are kinda givens already since they've already appeared (and the Box Ghost will have to show up at some point for the sake of humor), but I could use some ideas. I can't put every single ghost in, but there are already a few which are already guaranteed an appearance. However, I cannot say which these will be. I can't spoil the surprise, now, can I?


	8. Reporting In

OMG! REVIEW RESPONSES?! Well, not really, but I'm going to respond more in general to what you guys are saying instead of one by one. First of all, however, I'm sorry if Sora seems a little out of character in this chapter or the previous one. I'll fix that if I can. (Though it's about time someone showed Vlad up if you ask me XD) I'm glad you guys are enjoying this; it's very fun to write.

So far most of you are interested in Skulker appearing. He's pretty much obligatory if you ask me, so I'll find room to stick him in. Technus is also a very good idea; he'll definitely be making an appearance. I am also confirming the appearance of the Box Ghost, and those of you familiar with _Danny Phantom_ will probably know why he's appearing. Aside from them, I can not, and _will not_ confirm any other appearances. I don't want to spoil the story for you guys.

Flying may be incorporated with the Ghost Zone. I still have to work out a few kinks for that. I'd like to fit in flying on the gummi ship at some point, but I already used that in another crossover. No guarantee, but I won't write it off either.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) lasts all through November. My updates will be close to non-existent, but fear not, if I have time then I _shall_ update! Just don't expect fast updates like before.

Well, then, on to the chapter!

* * *

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Eight: Reporting In  
**

* * *

The cloaked figure stood quietly, staring out of the guest bedroom window. It was more than kind of Mayor Masters to allow him to stay here. After all, he had not known the man for very long, but interestingly enough he had gained trust by giving a few secrets about the "transfer student" staying with the Fentons. While he wasn't very specific on the details, the information he gave was adequate enough to accomplish the task.

After all, saving the best for last was one of the best tactics to use.

The swarm that had attacked the Fentons had been completely obliterated. He had misjudged the ghost boy's power. However, the power he had used to obliterate the darkness had sapped the last of his ghostly energy. The remaining forces that were not harmed by the sonic scream had fled. Next time he would have to be more cautious…or summon more powerful fiends.

Then there was the matter with Clockwork. The master of time was a formidable opponent, but he was also hard to read. Whether he was an ally or an enemy was hard to discern; he never gave any real answers to many of the questions asked of him, and only seemed to play by his own rules. He never actively fought, which was only a partial relief, but he had incredible power and had to be dealt with quickly.

He crossed his arms and closed the curtains. He could deal with this later; for now there were other things to deal with.

* * *

Danny entered his room cautiously, and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when he found Sora sitting calmly on his sleeping bag, his back to the door. He was staring at something in his hand. Deciding not to take the foreigner by surprise, Danny made his presence known by closing the door behind him. The click of the doorknob was a bit sudden to Sora, as he flinched, but he calmed when he saw that the visitor was only Danny, whom promptly went to fire up his computer.

Sora sighed. "I take it the guy down there was the Vlad guy you mentioned."

"Yeah," Danny replied, sighing. "I would have properly introduced you to him as my arch-nemesis but it looks like he's yours now, too."

"Something about him just grates on my nerves," Sora grumbled. "He knows way too much about this."

Danny sighed as he signed in to Doomed. "I can't disagree with you there," he said. "There's a few things he said that have me thinking, though…"

"Ask if you need to," Sora said quickly, sitting up and looking for something in his backpack. "Clockwork said that we don't have time for secrets anymore. I'll tell you what I can."

_I guess he trusts me enough,_ Danny thought. "Well, for one, why did you get so mad at Vlad earlier?"

Sora froze, his eyes narrowing. After a few seconds of silence he turned to Danny with a stony gaze. "A part of me has always been a good at judging people, I guess you could say. I knew right off that Vlad wasn't a good person. What really bit me was when he let on that he knew about the heartless earlier, and then made a mockery out of how I fought them." He sat back, withdrawing his hand from his backpack. "Neoshadows are a powerful type of heartless, but I've had plenty of experience fighting them. Fighting that many at once, on the other hand, is a bit difficult, but I _have_ taken on close to a thousand heartless in one round."

Danny's eyes widened. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm not," Sora replied, "And I did it solo. I had to fight other battles with other heartless before and after, too, and it all took a lot out of me. I thought it would never stop."

The mention of it made Danny stare at the floor for a moment. He had taken on a seemingly endless number of Pariah Dark's minions once, and even then he had help. Once he had locked the evil ghost king away, he had passed out from exhaustion (though it _was_ due to his father's Ecto-Skeleton that, he knew he probably would have gone out long before anyway without it). To think Sora had taken on such a feat and barely managed to survive was no joke. Vlad truly had no room to talk.

"I could handle him butting in on my family situation," the keyblade master continued, eyes narrowed. "It proves that he's got an outsider giving him information."

Danny blinked. "You caught that much from a taunt? Impressive."

Sora smirked. "I've had two years to learn."

"Two years, huh?" Danny asked, leaning back in his computer chair. "I've only had my ghost powers for less than one."

"Quick study?"

"You bet." Danny turned around momentarily to log into Doomed. The game was a great way to blow steam when something like Vlad had happened to him. "But as long as we're on the subject, where _is_ your family? I take it the people who dropped you off weren't your real parents, judging by what Vlad said."

Sora's smile faded only slightly. "They aren't. They're actually my friends Leon and Aerith. They're part of a group called the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. When one of the members found a reading coming from here they sent me to check it out."

"Are there other people with keyblades there?" Danny asked eagerly.

"No," Sora replied. "Just me. The keyblade isn't exactly an average sword. It's kind of like being a halfa, only a bit different."

_When he puts it that way, it makes a lot more sense. No wonder he's seen better days._

"Actually, do you want me to introduce you to them?" Sora asked. "I've already broken the rules by telling you about an outside threat, so if they have any ideas on how to handle anything that comes our way I need to include you."

"They're _here_?!" Danny replied, eyes widening considerably.

Sora shook his head. "No. I'll be getting them through a sort of webcam." He reached into his backpack again and pulled out what looked like a small laptop computer. "I just hope Yuffie isn't around."

"You fee?" Danny echoed.

No reply was given. Once Danny had cleared a space on his desk for him to sit, the keyblade master flipped on the device, typing in a name and password at the screen on start-up. The entire thing looked like a laptop aside from its oddly futuristic design and strange alphabet. Sora sat up straight in the chair. "I'll go ahead and warn you now, Danny…don't go nuts on these people. If you're given room to speak, do it, but don't do anything stupid. These guys are really busy most of the time."

Danny nodded. "Got it."

The screen flickered strangely for a moment before finally setting on a small room that could have easily been in a normal house had it not been for the absurd number of books piled all over the place, diagrams and maps posted on the walls, and a few techno gadgets lying here and there. _Tucker would love that place,_ Danny thought as his gaze finally focused on the man sitting in front of the computer. He looked a lot like Dash with the well-built muscles and a similar style of blonde hair, but the man wore a white shirt, a red dog-tag necklace, and a pair of goggles (which were shoved up onto his forehead). He also had a toothpick sticking out of his mouth that he appeared to be chewing on before his screen flashed. He grinned oddly. "Hey there, Sora! School going alright fer ya?"

_What's with his country accent?_ Danny observed.

"You can talk straight to me, Cid," Sora said, obviously preparing for the worst. "I'm here to introduce you to Danny."

Cid crossed his arms. "Ain't that the kid you were s'posed t' be stayin' with?"

"Yeah," Sora replied, nodding. "He and I had a bad run-in with a huge crowd of Neoshadows earlier, and I-"

"SORA YOU ARE IN _SO_ MUCH TROUBLE!"

Both of the boys winced as the high-pitched feminine scream of fury reached their ears. Danny was thankful that his parents were in the lab, or they would have heard it. Sora groaned. "Oh, great," he mumbled very quietly. "Yuffie."

A raven-haired girl dressed in a black tanktop matched with a similarly colored vest and pair of short shorts, complete with a pair of knee-high boots. As she raced in from the side of the screen, Danny could see the tails of her dark headband flying behind her. Brown eyes glared at the screen. "You've only been there a _single day_ and you've _already_ broken the rules?! The king's ganna be _really_ mad, you know!"

"Calm down, Yuffie," Cid groaned, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure Sora's got a decent reason fer it…"

"He'd better!" The ninja growled, pulling out an absurdly large shuriken. "And this had better not be about-"

"About someone here knowing more than he should about my past when I've never met him before?" Sora interrupted. "Or about that same person knowing about the heartless?"

There was a stunned silence for about fifteen seconds. Danny had to resist whistling lowly in admiration; Sora had pulled off the right move at the right moment.

Yuffie's expression softened (and Cid's sharpened) to a severe state of seriousness. "We're listening," Cid said, his tone of voice completely different.

"Introductions first," Sora said, "Then I'll tell you what I've found out so far." He sat back in his chair and gestured to Danny. "This is Danny Fenton, one of the kids in the family I'm staying with. Long story short, he's saved my butt several times. He hasn't been in the business of fighting evil as long as we have but he's not exactly new to it either."

"How does he fight?" Yuffie asked incredulously. "He's just a kid."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Danny remarked.

"Sorry, Yuffie does that a lot," Sora said quietly before returning to the conversation. "Are you guys familiar with ghosts?"

"Yep."

"Well…" Sora paused. "Danny, you want to explain this?"

"I'm sort of a ghost-human hybrid," Danny said, hoping to keep the explanation short and sweet. "I can do typical ghost stuff like turning invisible and whatnot, but I've also got some ice powers and I can manipulate ectoplasmic energy to an extent."

"What's ectoplasm?" Yuffie asked.

"Look it up later," Cid grunted, giving the young ninja a glare. "Anything else, Danny?"

"Not much else," Danny replied, "Other than the fact that I try to keep my ghost half as a separate identity. I tend to get some help from my parents' inventions and I help keep ghosts in Amity Park under control when I get the chance. With these heartless things around though, I've got my hands full."

"Lucky you've got Sora on your side," Cid commented, grinning. "He's no pro but he can outdo a lot of veterans out there."

Sora glared. "Would you quit talking about me like I'm not here?" he grumbled, echoing Danny's earlier statement.

"Right," Cid chuckled. "Anyway, whadoya got to tell us?"

"I've only seen Neoshadows running around so far," Sora began, "And a whole crowd at that. They gathered around earlier today, which was when Danny and I had to reveal ourselves to each other. There are only two other people that know, but they're used to keeping secrets and they won't tell a soul."

"What about this guy that knows more than he should?" Yuffie asked.

Sora narrowed his eyes. "His name is Vlad Masters. He knows that my real family is still waiting for me at home, and he also knows about the heartless attack. I wouldn't put it above him to be the one commanding them."

"Aren't you being a bit of a quick judge there?" Yuffie commented, crossing her arms admonishingly.

"Prolly not," Cid replied. "Danny, you know anything about this guy?"

"Plenty," Danny said, glad for a chance to tell someone head-on about Vlad for once. "He's the mayor of Amity Park, and he's a halfa just like me, only more powerful. The only way I've managed to keep him down is though some serious wit, and even then he has plenty of blackmail material to keep me out of his hair."

"You sure he's not just an arch-rival?"

"He's an arch-rival that got Amity Park into loads of trouble more than once," Danny replied, hoping not to be ushered into the details. "The only things he ever cares about are making my dad look like an idiot, winning my mom over, money, and making himself look good while I look like the one that made the messes that he's actually responsible for. He may not sound like someone bent on destroying the planet or anything, but I'm pretty sure he'd stoop to that level if it got him some benefits of some sort."(1)

"Sounds way too familiar," Yuffie commented. Sora nodded in agreement, and Danny could quickly tell that there was a story behind the comment.

"We met up with a ghost called Clockwork earlier," Sora said. "The only thing he told us was that the one bringing the heartless here isn't the one commanding them, but the one commanding them is someone that Danny knows."

"I wouldn't put it past this Vlad guy, judging by what we know of 'im," Cid grumbled. "Unless you know some other villain material, Danny."

"Plenty," Danny replied, "But most of them aren't stupid enough to put the world at stake for personal gain. I can easily suspect a few and Vlad's definitely on the list, but I'd have to say that most of the bad guys I've met know _way_ better than that."

Yuffie sighed. "Well, we can't do much until we have more information. I'll let Leon and Aerith know; chances are Merlin's already found out by now."

Sora blinked. "Where are they, anyway?"

"They had a rough trip back home," Yuffie explained briefly. "Aerith's at the lab checking out a few things and Leon's on patrol again."

This elicited a sigh from Sora. "Does he ever take a break from that?"

Yuffie chuckled humorlessly. "Probably not. I don't think he'd want heartless crawling all over the place when Merlin gets back from his errand at the castle, though."

"Merlin can _handle_ the heartless," Sora retorted. "Tell Leon to take a break or I'll come back there."

The ninja, however, smirked knowingly. "With what transportation?"

Danny glanced at Sora oddly before the boy grunted. "Just tell him to take it easy."

"Only if you don't break any more rules."

"I won't make any promises."

Yuffie shot him one more grin before walking out the door. Cid rolled his eyes. "We'll keep things under control here. Focus on your mission, Sora, and don't break any more rules if you can help it."

Sora shot a sad glance at Danny before nodding. "I'll do what I can, Cid."

"But as long as yer still here, could I ask ya a favor?"

"Like what?"

Cid seemed to deflate in relief. "Get the blue runt outta the lab at some point. You know how. He's causing a bit of chaos for us. Nothing we can't fix or handle, but if he keeps it up he's bound to slow us down by more than we can afford."

"I'll do my best," Sora replied wearily. "See you later, Cid. I'll send some information by e-mail if I can."

The blonde shot off a salute before Sora flipped off the laptop. He leaned back in his chair. "That went well."

"Did it?" Danny asked. He wasn't exactly used to being second-in-command so to speak, but judging from how Sora handled the ninja he was more than happy to step back.

Sora sighed, standing and heading back to his spot on his sleeping bag. "Yuffie isn't mad at me, thankfully. I can't say the same for the others, though."

Danny winced. "Breaking the rules is a huge offense, isn't it?"

"Breaking the rules is more than just a huge offense," Sora replied. "People aren't supposed to know about the outside world, so to speak. Simply put, you're supposed to keep your nose out of other people's business. The only difference is that for people like me, it gives the heartless an advantage if you screw up."

Taking it in, Danny began returning his desk to its original state after shutting off his computer. "What are the heartless after, anyway? Aside from you, that is."

Sora had apparently been fervently avoiding the issue, as it held some pain for him. "I guess there's no avoiding it now," he said quietly. "You already know that I'm more than just a foreign exchange student. I've been sent here because there were heartless detected here. Heartless are creatures that feast on the darkness in people's hearts, and that means just about everyone. There are seven princesses without any darkness in their heart, but they're the only ones." He looked away briefly before continuing. "The heartless go after people's hearts, and anyone that gets beaten by them or anyone that gives in to the darkness in their heart becomes a heartless."

"So they're basically mindless creatures bent on feeding on darkness?"

The keyblade master nodded. "But people aren't the only one with hearts," he continued. "Worlds have hearts, too, and heartless go after those especially."

Danny braced himself as he asked his next question. "What happens when they find it?"

Sora closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "In the end," he said quietly, "It just disappears."

To say Danny was shocked by Sora's revelation on the fact was a huge understatement. _So when he mentioned the world being destroyed to Clockwork,_ he thought, putting the pieces together, _That was what he was referring to. And he sounded so weird when he said it…_ "Is there a way to keep them from doing that?" Danny asked nervously.

"Only one," Sora replied. "The heartless are everywhere, and there's virtually no stop to them. The only way to keep a world safe is to seal the keyhole to that world." On cue, the keyblade appeared in Sora's hand. While Danny was taken by surprise, Sora seemed as though he completely expected it, aside from the slight look of amusement on his face. "The keyhole has the ability to seal and unseal any lock," he continued, "And those keyholes are the most important. My mission when I came was to stay under cover and find the keyhole to this world as fast as possible before the heartless show up, but it looks like I'm late to the party again."

"Worlds have keyholes," Danny mused. "How do you know all this? You have a teacher or something?"

"It's a long story that I'll tell you later," Sora said quietly, and the discussion promptly ended.

Danny rubbed his head uneasily. _Well, I _have_ been asking a lot of questions. Sora could use a break. After all, if anyone knows what it's like to go full blast for so long, it's me…_ Deciding to change the subject in hope of cheering Sora up, the halfa headed quietly to his bed and sat down. "Well, tomorrow's Saturday. We're ganna meet Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger at lunch time to talk about some of this if you're comfortable."

"Okay," Sora replied, pulling the sleeping bag blanket over him. He promptly fell asleep, and Danny tucked himself into his own bed, casting one last glance out the window before closing his eyes. Tomorrow was going to be a rough day.

* * *

So, there's chapter eight. The first one to figure out who the "blue runt" is gets a cookie.

(1) Reference to Phantom Planet.


	9. Everyone's Got a Secret

Longer chapters are always made of yay. Or something. I had no idea what to name this chapter, I hope this works.

To clear up any confusion beforehand, there are no OCs in this story. There'd be no plot twist if there were. So, who might the man in the black cloak be...? We'll have to wait and see, but rest assured, you won't be waiting for _too _long!

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Nine: Everyone's Got a Secret  
**

* * *

Sora found himself staring at the roof in the middle of the night. It was difficult to sleep knowing that the heartless were running about, but somehow he managed to do it. What bothered him at the moment, however, wasn't the heartless, but Danny. When he first heard them speaking, he knew that Vlad and Danny didn't get along. He had been almost all the way up the stairs when he heard remarks being shot back and forth like bullets in a western shootout. He had hoped to intervene to calm down the tension, but something didn't seem right about the visitor. Sora's instinct had turned out to be right when Vlad commented about his family.

_I wonder how they're doing anyway,_ Sora thought lazily. _I haven't seen Mom and Dad in two years. I sure hope they aren't worried about me…_

As though to quell his anxiety, Sora felt a quick rush of warmth through him: a feeling he recognized as the keyblade being summoned. He checked his hand and, sure enough, there it was. He gave a half-grin to no one in particular. The keyblade was indeed a sentient weapon; it had a tendency to appear whenever Sora needed it most, whether in a battle or just for some reassurance. Keeping a happy face on, even in the darkest of times, was something that Sora had come to be good at, but it never stopped him from having doubts.

"Can't sleep, I take it?"

Sora turned over in his sleeping bag just in time to see Danny Phantom finish phasing through his bedroom window. The keyblade master shrugged and sat up, hand still clutching the keyblade. "Not a bit," Sora replied tiredly, stretching one arm and yawning. "What're you doing out?"

Danny shrugged. "Ghost patrol. Luckily no one's out tonight. There haven't been that many ghost attacks since the heartless showed up."

"You don't think the ghosts became heartless, do you?" Sora asked.

"I doubt it," Danny replied. "The ones in the ghost zone are probably busy trying to keep the heartless away. Skulker's probably handling them all solo."

Sora blinked. "Skulker? You've got someone following you?"

Danny chuckled. "Well, he actually does do that. He's a ghost that wears a high-tech battle suit. Says he's the greatest warrior of the Ghost Zone and never stops coming after me."

"Great," Sora commented almost sarcastically. "You have more than one arch-nemesis." _Just like me. Organization XIII, Maleficent…I wonder how many he's got._

"Skulker isn't really like that," Danny replied, shifting quietly back to human form. "Sure, he's my enemy and all, but he's actually helped me every now and then…sometimes without actually knowing it. He never admits why though…just says that it gives him more of a reason to hunt me and rest my pelt at the foot of his bed."

Sora wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting," he groaned, trying not to form a mental image and failing.

"Disgusting is right," the halfa said, pulling the blankets over himself again. "Anyway, I'm going to head back to sleep. You should too if we're going to if we're going to head to the Nasty Burger tomorrow." With that, Danny fell silent.

Glancing at the keyblade momentarily as though asking it what to do, Sora finally shrugged and slunk back into his sleeping bag, dismissing the weapon in a subtle shower of sparkles. It wasn't easy drifting back to sleep, but he managed to pull it off as he always did. _Let's just hope tomorrow isn't as packed as today was._

* * *

Sora woke up the next morning at about the same time Danny did. When the two made it downstairs, they found a note waiting on the table:

_Danny,_

_Your father and I are spending most of the day in town today. There are leftovers in the fridge if you get hungry. Let Jazz know if you head to town and make sure you're home in time for your curfew. Don't play in the lab._

_Love, Mom_

Danny stared at the note with a narrow gaze. "That's odd," he began. "I thought something came up yesterday when they were in town a whole lot, but they're gone again today, too."

"Does that happen often?" Sora asked, partially knowing what the answer was going to be.

Confirming his suspicion, the halfa shook his head. "Not really. Last time this happened they wound up kidnapped by ghosts to power some sort of ghost pirate ship, but when that happened they were hypnotized and just said that they were going on a cruise. I wonder what they're up to."

It was at that moment hat Jazz entered the kitchen, a book under one of her arms. "Good morning," she mumbled, apparently still half-asleep.

Danny grinned. "Stay up late reading?"

"Not really," the girl responded a bit stiffly, casting an odd glance at Sora. "I was doing research…"

Sora was about to ask about the research when he noticed Jazz's expression become very strained. He had seen that look before on several of the people he had met in the past (and he had even seen it on himself several times) when they were hiding something. Danny just grinned and headed for the refrigerator. "Cereal okay for you for breakfast, Sora?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "Anything's good, just as long as it's food."

Danny grinned and pulled out the milk. He had prepared the bowls of cereal and was about to prepare breakfast when Jazz called one last remark over her shoulder. "By the way, Danny, we're out of milk. Mom and Dad are using the leftover milk jugs to keep some of the ectoplasmic residue samples. I'll be at the library if you need me."

Both boys stared blankly as the girl closed the door behind her. A sizzling sound caught their attention as they looked down at the cereal bowl that Danny had just prepared: a single drop of what he thought was milk had caused his breakfast to glow for a few moments before frying to a crisp. Sora swallowed nervously. "I think I just lost my appetite," he groaned.

"Dry cereal okay with you?" Danny asked.

Sora nodded, groaning inwardly. "Better than eating anything radioactive."

* * *

After breakfast, Sora and Danny headed upstairs to pass the time. Eventually they settled on firing up Doomed, which Sora was very eager to try. When he logged in and started up his avatar, however, he noticed something very familiar about it. It looked just like him, but he was wearing a dark grey outfit covered in blue linear designs, complete with a circuit-style helmet and key-shaped weapon.

_Well what do you know,_ Sora said in his mind, chuckling at the inside joke. _That's how I look whenever I go into Ansem's computer._

"Nice avatar," Danny commented. "How'd you design him?"

Sora grinned proudly. "Specializing in close-range attacks, electrokinesis and environmental perception."

"That's a hard type to start out with," Danny said, blinking. "You're pretty good with it."

"It's my specialty," Sora replied simply.

_Friar Tuck: hey sora_

_Kingdomkey: hey tuck wats up?_

_Friar Tuck: just playing alittle b4 we meet at the nasty burger_

_Kingdomkey: cool_

_Kingdomkey: dannys showing me the ropes_

_Friar Tuck: nice_

_Friar Tuck hi danny_

Danny grinned at the screen while Sora picked up a key and headed for the next level.

_Kingdomkey: danny sez hi_

_Friar Tuck: u have a close combat char?_

_Kingdomkey: yeah its my favorite kind_

_Friar Tuck: u got electro too? sweet_

Sora continued firing through levels in attempt to catch up with Tucker when he came across a suspicious looking hallway. It had no shading like it was supposed to. Curious, Sora began to head for it when Danny stopped him. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."

"Why not?" Sora asked.

"It's level zero," Danny replied, a hint of dry humor in his voice. "A glitch in the program. One way in, no way out." He paused in thought. "Well, there is a way out but it doesn't exactly work."

It wasn't long before Sora had caught up with Tucker (much to Danny's surprise). While they plowed their way through monsters, Sora struck up conversation with Danny. "Are you and Tucker the only people besides me that play this game?"

"That I know of?" Danny replied. "No. Sam plays, too, and she kicks our butt a lot."

Sora's eyes widened considerably and he barely dodged a blast from an enemy sniper. "Not bad! I can't see her doing that, though."

Danny laughed. "We couldn't either," he said. "But once we found out it was her she joined our team."

_Chaos: Hey, Tuck._

"Speak of the devil," the halfa observed.

_Friar Tuck: hey sam_

_Kingdomkey: hi sam_

_Chaos: Who's this?_

_Friar Tuck: it's sora_

_Chaos: Hi, Sora! Danny showing you the ropes?_

_Kingdomkey: yeah_

_Kingdomkey: playing close range is fun_

_Chaos: You've got Electrokinesis, too. Did you base your avatar off of yourself or something?_

_Kingdomkey: yeah_

_Kingdomkey: more than I thought_

"More than you thought?" Danny asked.

Sora laughed. "Another long story," he replied.

_Friar Tuck: gtg guys, ill meet u at the nb_

_Chaos: I'll get going, too. Mom wants me to clean my room before I go anywhere today. See you guys soon!_

_Friar Tuck has logged out._

_Chaos has logged out._

"NB?" Sora echoed.

"The Nasty Burger," Danny replied. "Tucker and Sam live closer than we do. They're probably going to head over there right now.

"Wait a minute," Sora began, piecing together a few things in his mind. "If they live closer and they're leaving already, does that mean we're going to be late if we leave now?"

Danny smirked. "Not really."

Sora blinked in confusion until he discerned the look on his friend's face. He knew that expression anywhere; Riku had used it when he had the idea to build the raft. "Um…so how are we going to get there without breaking several laws of physics?"

"Easy," Danny replied, transforming into his ghostly alter-ego.

_That's pretty self-explanatory,_ Sora noted.

Danny grabbed a pencil and paper. "I'll leave a note for Jazz that we're at the Nasty Burger. You log out of Doomed and wait for me in here."

As Danny vanished through the wall, Sora quickly logged out of the game and shut off the computer. Within moments, Danny was back. Before Sora could ask what the plan was, the halfa was already filling him in. "We're flying there."

"Flying?" Sora echoed. Sure, he was capable of flight himself, but he preferred not to use it unless absolutely necessary, regardless of how much fun it was. "I know _you_ can fly, but what about me?"

"Hello?" Danny said, crossing his arms slyly. "Ghost powers? I have more strength than normal when I'm a ghost. I can carry you."

Before the keyblade master could protest, Danny had grabbed him and taken off for the window. Sora braced himself for impact, but a strange tingling feeling swept through him and before he knew it they were outside, the wind whipping past them and the city underneath a complete blur. Sora's eyes widened in shock. "This is _awesome_!" he cried.

"I know," Danny replied. "And at this rate we'll be there in less than two minutes!"

"Aren't we going to be seen?"

"Nah. We're both invisible right now."

Sora at first doubted his friend, but when he turned to glance at his own hand, which he suddenly found was nowhere to be _seen_, he dropped his questions.

It wasn't long before the two arrived at the restaurant in question. Danny brought Sora to the back behind a dumpster at first so he could slip into human form. As they entered, they quickly found the table where Sam and Tucker were seated and joined in. "Sorry we're late," Danny said, grinning oddly.

"You're only late by a few minutes," Tucker replied, glancing at his PDA.

Sam smirked. "Defying the laws of physics again?" she asked.

Danny nodded. "Yeah," he replied as he and Sora sat down. He immediately lowered his voice. "So, about this whole heartless thing…"

"You first," Tucker said immediately.

Sora caught Danny's eye and gave forward an abridged version of the explanation he had given the halfa the previous night about what the heartless were, carefully leaving out the part about the world vanishing if they reached the world's heart, instead only saying that he heartless should not reach it. "If I can find the keyhole, I'll be able to stop them and get this under control. Until then we'll just have to do what we can."

"As a Goth, the whole darkness thing should be appealing to me," Sam said dryly as usual, "But that's just way too much for my style."

"There's more," Danny said. "Vlad was at my house last night. He knew about the attack that happened near my house."

"Why am I not surprised?" Sam commented.

"He also seems to know about Sora," the halfa continued. "More than he should, actually. We can't be sure yet if he's a part of this mess, but he knows way too much not to."

"I say we keep an eye on him just in case," Sora agreed. "After all, didn't you see him with a guy in a black cloak, Tucker?"

The techno-geek nodded. "Yeah, and I got a picture of him just last night after I headed home. Take a look." He pulled out his PDA and showed it to the group. Vlad, dressed in his usual attire, standing next to a suspiciously black-cloaked man. Eyes widening, Sora grabbed the PDA from the boy's hand. Tucker gave him a half-glare for the gesture. "Hey, what was that for?"

"I know that cloak anywhere," Sora grumbled quietly, ignoring Tucker's question. "That guy's from Organization XIII."

"Organization XIII?" Danny asked. "Who're they, a bunch of people obsessed with back luck?"

Sora shook his head. "No. They're a group of people called Nobodies, people without hearts. I thought I'd wiped all of their officers out. Looks like I missed one."

"So, is this the guy bringing the heartless here?" Sam asked.

"Probably," Sora replied. "At least, he's the one that introduced them. If he was seen with the mayor, then he's either trying to pull that guy's strings or Vlad really is the one commanding them."

"It's painfully obvious if you ask me," Tucker said. "He's hanging out with him and he's talking about stuff he shouldn't know from what I gather. If that doesn't have 'I'm your enemy' written all over it, I don't know what does."

"Hey, Fen-turd!"

The annoying sound of Dash's voice was quickly followed by an equally obnoxious mayonnaise-covered bun finding a new home on the back of Danny's head. The halfa groaned, his eyes flickering green for the slightest second before Sora gripped his shoulder. "Don't react and they won't get what they want," he warned.

"I beg to differ," Danny grumbled as he removed the offending bread from his hair, but Sora could tell that he agreed anyway.

"Getting a little revenge wouldn't hurt though," Sora added, winking.

Danny grinned, but placed a hand in the air in disagreement. "No thanks. Last time I did that I ended up in a huge mess involving switching places with a ghost that haunted my locker."

"It didn't end well either," Tucker added.

"There's something else suspicious going on," Danny began. "When Sora and I were headed down for breakfast, my parents were already gone. They haven't been away so often in a long time, and I don't think it's a coincidence."

"I'd be glad if I were you," Sam mumbled. "Your parents are about as annoying and crazy as mine are."

Sora noticed a strange look in Danny's eyes as the halfa replied. "I'm happy, sure, but it just doesn't seem right. Remember what happened the last time my parents vanished? _Everyone's_ parents ended up being the power source for Youngblood's pirate ship."

"But it's just _your_ parents this time," Tucker pointed out. "Is Jazz with them?"

"No," Danny replied, "But she said she's been researching."

"I think it's a bit more than that," Sora said suddenly, getting everyone's interest. "I may not know Jazz as well as you guys or especially Danny, but she didn't seem like she was telling us everything when she mentioned research. I might be getting a bit paranoid, but wouldn't she be telling Danny a few details at least?"

Surprisingly, Danny nodded in agreement. "She was probably doing something related to ghost hunting," he said. "She knew my secret for a while but I didn't find out until later. She probably thinks you're still innocent, Sora."

"Innocent?" Sora echoed in disbelief. "I didn't commit any crimes."

"Figure of speech."

"So what now?" Sam asked. "We know who brought these things here, and we have a pretty good idea who's controlling them."

"If we find the keyhole and seal it up, we'll be able to stop them," Sora explained. "It's our only option right now. The only problem is, we have to find it before they do, and we have no idea where it is."

"I doubt Clockwork will appreciate another visit," Tucker groaned.

Sora shook his head. _He definitely doesn't seem like the type. The only way I've known in the past where the keyhole was located was this weird feeling I got…that or the keyblade just acted on its own._ "There's one way to know where it is though, but it's hard to explain. I can usually sense it when I get near it, but other times the keyblade just acts on its own to point it out. It's different for every place I go, so you'll just have to trust me on this."

"So we're wandering around in the dark," Danny concluded. When Sora nodded, he shrugged. "Well, it could be worse."

As though on cue, a burst of screams erupted from outside the restaurant. On instinct, Sora leapt up and raced out the door to find the source; Danny and the others weren't far behind. Once outside, he found that the assailant was, in fact, an enormous but familiar heartless. His eyes quickly traveled over the creature's form to identify it: cloven hooves, violet colored skin, two very large tusks and a horn on its forehead, tiny eyes… "A behemoth," he grumbled. "It's been ages since I've seen one of these."

"Anyone up for playing matador?" Tucker asked no one in particular, a hint of fear in his voice.

"You familiar with this thing?" Sam asked Sora.

"Very," The keyblade master replied, nodding. "It's a behemoth, a very powerful heartless. This isn't the first time I've run into one, and every time I do I hope it's the last time."

"I take back what I said earlier," Danny said, wincing. "Things just got a _lot_ worse!"

* * *

Kingdom Hearts gets most of its love in the sequel and Organization XIII. It's about time we got some good old-fashioned heartless in on the job. Behemoths are so much fun!

Anywho. This chapter is over 3,000 words long. WOOT!


	10. Behemoth Attacks

Meep, here's chapter ten...wow, we're in the double-digits already. (sniffles) This chappie is roughly 4,000 words. WHOA, NEW RECORD! Sorta...

Anywho, I hope I did a good job!

* * *

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Ten: Behemoth Attacks  
**

* * *

Jazz narrowed her eyes determinedly as her research finished printing. She felt bad hiding it from Danny, but it couldn't be helped while Sora was around. There was no way Danny would up and tell the foreigner his secret so quickly; it was too risky.

What had most of her attention, however, was her parents' stranger-than-normal antics as of late. They had stayed up late and been running off into town more than normal. Packing her research into her notebook, she headed down to the laboratory to see if she could find anything.

Now that she thought about it, her parents had been acting strangely not long before Sora showed up. They only started going to town more often when they heard news that he was going to arrive (which had set Danny on edge for good reason, but he had since then calmed down), and Jazz knew _something_ had to be up.

When Jazz reached the basement, however, nothing was out of the ordinary. She was about to head back upstairs when she eyed the confidential files that her parents kept. With an oath, she crept up to them and began flipping through.

* * *

"I didn't know heartless could be this big!" Tucker cried, not bothering with secrecy since everyone else was running amok and not paying attention to them.

"This guy isn't the biggest," Sora replied, "But it's pretty close." _Groundshaker in the Pride Lands was way bigger…and way faster. Good thing I've got some practice in since last time I fought one of _these_._

Danny narrowed his eyes. "Guys, group hug, _now_."

Sora didn't see what they meant right off the bat (_Is this _really_ a good time for that?_), but when a flash of light accompanied the gesture to reveal that Danny had swapped to his ghost form once more he cast the issue aside. In the chaos, Sora summoned the keyblade as Danny called out to him. "Any ideas how to beat this thing?"

The keyblade master nodded. Strategy talks like this were standard issue after all his time helping out with the restoration committee. "The horn in the middle of its head is its weakness. Basic magic doesn't work on it, so we'll have to get in close."

"You make this sound like a video game," Sam commented.

Tucker had other questions. "Magic?"

_And yet another rule has been broken,_ Sora groaned. _Idiot, Sora! Next time keep the magic bit to yourself!_ Ignoring their statements, Sora charged forward, Danny not far behind. The tusks on the beast began to glow ominously, and within moments a sphere of energy began to form. Sora knew what was coming next and skidded to a stop. "Danny! Look out!"

The ghost boy was too late. The behemoth fired the assault into the air and the sphere shattered, raining down on the ground below. Danny reacted quickly and raised a green shield to block the attack. Sora, on the other hand, did not have such a convenience and instead used his agility to avoid injury. When the sparks ceased their fall, the Behemoth headed forward at a slow pace, each step shaking the earth. Startled, as he had not fought such a creature in a long time, Sora fell backward. The creature was about to stomp on him when he rolled desperately out of the way, ending up underneath the creature. It began to coil its muscles, and the keyblade master quickly calculated its next movement. "Danny! It's ganna jump!"

Danny cried out in shock as the behemoth leapt forward, crashing dangerously close to the Nasty Burger. The halfa had zipped directly upward, barely avoiding being crushed by the enormous beast. Taking his cue, Sora ran forward, leaping onto the creature's back and brandishing the keyblade as he ran up its spine. Before he could make close contact, however, the beast threw its head back and roared, causing bolts of lightning to crash down around it, one of them striking Sora and causing him to crash to the ground.

"You okay, Sora?" Danny asked.

"Peachy," Sora grumbled. "Stupid thing recovered too fast for me to get up near the horn."

The halfa returned to the task at hand. "I'll keep him distracted! Hurry!"

Nodding, even though Danny wouldn't see it, Sora ran around the back of the behemoth. Normally a hoofed beast would be more dangerous in the rear than the front, but heartless behemoths were much different. He rolled out of the way as the monster shot a meteor into the air, once more storming down shards of dark energy. A quick flick of his wrist erected a reflect shield; while the retaliation effect would be useless, it saved him from the onslaught, which was all he needed. Leaping up as high as he could, he ran across the creature's back as it was charging another dark blast. Sora brandished the keyblade as he neared its head and slashed across the black horn, shattering it into countless pieces which fizzled out of existence.

"Great job, Sora!" Tucker shouted as he ran forward, Sam not far behind him.

Danny hovered over the ground, his legs still fused into a spectral tail. "Yeah. Not bad."

Sora jumped off of the creature's neck and walked over to his friends, grinning. "They're big and powerful, but they're not exactly smart."

"They're not short-lived, either," Sam cried. "Look!"

The group spun in the direction that the goth was looking. Sure enough, the behemoth's horn might have been destroyed, but it was standing once more, its pelt shifting to an eerie light blue and an undulating glow forming around it. Out of the corner of his eye, Sora caught a small stream of blue mist escaping from Danny's mouth. The behemoth roared and fixed its gaze on the keyblade master, whom gawked in shock. "No way! I thought we already beat it!"

"I don't think it's just a heartless anymore," Danny said, eyes narrowing. "My ghost sense just went off."

Tucker swallowed nervously. "Not good! How do we fight this thing now?"

"We fight it like a ghost," Danny replied. "Any ideas, Sora?"

_Why's he asking me?_ Sora thought. _I've never had this happen before!_ "This is just a guess, but since its horn is gone it shouldn't summon anymore meteors or lightning or anything. What I want to know now is how to beat it!"

Danny shook his head. "We don't have to. We just need to wear it down."

"Wear it down?" Sora echoed. "Are you nuts?"

"Just trust me," Danny said before turning to his other two friends. "Sam, Tucker, you know what to do!"

The duo nodded and headed back inside the Nasty Burger. Sora and Danny returned their attention to the behemoth. "I'll get it from the air," Danny said quickly. "What about you, Sora?"

Sora grinned. "I'm going to pull a few pranks here on the ground," he replied. "It's time to get the blue runt out of the lab."

"Who's the blue runt?"

"You'll see; just keep the behemoth busy!"

Danny nodded and flew off, his departure quickly followed by a few ectoplasmic blasts being fired off. Sora, his senses honed by his years fighting the heartless, made quick calculations. The behemoth could not use the power it had utilized with its horn, but it still posed a huge threat without it. It was even getting more inventive; Danny was having to dodge the tusks slashing through the air toward him.

_Now is as good a time as any,_ Sora thought decisively, pulling a small pendant-like charm out of his pocket. A quick glance at it revealed the small, banjo-like stringed instrument depicted on it. He clutched it in his fist and quickly made sure no one was looking before focusing with all of his might. Sora felt a warm energy pulsing from the charm before it vanished from his hand, and he was just opening his eyes when a blur of blue tackled him from the side and knocked him into the ground. There, sitting on top of him, was a very familiar four-legged creature with an enormous head and similarly large rabbit-like ears. The creature wasn't all that large, but it was somehow obscenely heavy.

Judging by how it licked Sora's face, it was also _very_ happy to see him.

After the slobber-fest had ceased, Sora picked up Stitch with great difficulty and set him on the ground. "I'm happy to see you, too," he replied, immediately getting down to business. "We have a lot to talk about, but that needs to wait for later. You see that?" He pointed at the now-ghostly behemoth.

Stitch gave it a single glance and growled, landing on all fours. Sora knew Stitch could sense things that he couldn't even after years of fighting the monsters, and nodded. "We're going to weaken him, not take him down. You know what that means?"

At those words, Stitch glanced at Sora incredulously and spilled forth a stream of gibberish. The keyblade master didn't know precisely what Stitch had said, but the feeling he received told him what he meant. He grinned mischievously at the blue alien and nodded. "Do your worst, Stitch."

With that, Sora brandished the keyblade and ran forward, Stitch following not far behind. Danny was soon smacked out of the air by one of the tusks, and skidded to the ground near Sora. "Is it just me or is this guy more powerful with his horn _gone_?" the ghost-boy grumbled as he pushed himself up off the ground.

"No idea," Sora replied. "But we're not taking him down, remember? You said we had to weaken him. I've got an idea that'll wear him out quick, but we'll still need to pitch in to make it work faster."

The behemoth roared and lifted one of its front feet. Danny scrambled upward, shifting his legs into a tail once more and swept Sora out of the way moments before they would have been smashed. "What's your plan?" he cried.

"Remember the thing that Cid told me to get out of the lab?" Sora replied.

Danny stared at him incredulously. "Sort of. Why?"

He was answered with a light pole nearly crashing on top of him, smacking the behemoth on the head instead. Quickly following the assault was a blur of yellow and black, which turned out to be a car (_What kind of name is Ginormo 6000?_) which smashed into the monster's tusk, breaking it in half. A flash of blue ran in front of them and Stitch caught the nearly-demolished car. This time it was thrown upward, uppercutting the monster on the chin and causing it to roar in pain and anger. Matters were made worse for the behemoth when the broken light pole was resurrected as Stitch's sword, which he then swept at an obscenely fast speed underneath the behemoth's front legs and causing it to fall forward.

Amidst the chaos, Danny blinked in shock. "What the..."

Sora grinned and backed away, flipping his Keyblade into both hands. He held one hand near the tip and cradled the other end near the handle. "Let's go, Stitch!"

The blue furball in question appeared right next to Sora (much to Danny's surprise) and pulled two strange-looking guns from virtually thin air. "So-raaaa!" he exclaimed.

What happened next was probably a blur to anyone other than keyblade master and alien. While Sora mimicked playing guitar using the keyblade, Stitch was rushing about firing off his plasma guns. The result was a barrage of green plasma shots being fired at the great monster and an odd ukulele sound coming from Sora's keyblade, which for some reason seemed to add to the assault. When the assault ended, the Behemoth was staggering and Sora held the keyblade in his usual fashion in one hand, holding Stitch in the other. "Nice work, Stitch!" He said, dismissing the keyblade momentarily to ruffle the creature's fur. Stitch purred in content.

Danny was dumbstruck for only moments. When the behemoth crashed to the ground, he was snapped back into reality. He zoomed backward a few yards. "Tucker! Sam! Hurry up!"

The two emerged frantically from the restaurant. "Bad news!" Sam cried. "The thermos is missing!"

_Thermos?_ Sora thought. _What're they going to do, drown the thing in soup?_

It was clear, however, that the thermos in question was very important. Danny's green eyes widened in fear as the behemoth began to stand up again, its eyes glowing fiercely. "What are we going to do with this thing?"

"Stand back, Danny!"

Danny flew out of the way just in time as a ray of blue light shot out from nearby, encasing the great heartless. A roar of fury emitted from the creature before it was dragged backward into the beam of light, which Sora quickly found was coming from a small cylindrical device. Holding it was none other than Jazz Fenton, whom had a backpack slung over her shoulders and a frantic expression. The moment the last of the behemoth was sucked inside; she snapped on the cap of the device and gave a sigh of relief. Danny grinned with similar sentiments. "Nice save there, Jazz."

Jazz shook her head. "I'm glad I thought to bring one just in case." She paused momentarily when she saw Sora and Stitch. "Ah…I mean…"

"It's okay, Jazz," Danny began carefully. "He knows."

The girl sighed. "Danny, are you sure you can trust him with a secret like that?"

"He trusted me with his," the halfa replied.

Sora nodded, setting Stitch on the ground. "It's true," he said. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul as long as you don't."

Jazz nodded firmly. "Fine by me. Just tell me what that thing is."

Stitch snarled in protest.

"Easy, Stitch," Sora said, kneeling down and petting the alien on the head. It didn't do much to quell the alien's annoyance, but he remained calm anyway. The keyblade master turned back to Jazz and Danny as Tucker and Sam approached to join in. "If anyone asks, he's my dog. Stitch is basically a genetic experiment that lives…" He paused when he remembered he hadn't told anyone other than Danny about the HBRC. "…far away. We're good friends." Sora turned back to the alien. "Don't think this introduction is getting you out of trouble, mister. You have a lot of explaining to do when we get somewhere safe." The admonishing words caused Stitch's ears to lower significantly in guilt, but he nodded anyway.

"What're _you _doing here, anyway?" Tucker asked Jazz. "Danny said you were doing research."

"I am," Jazz replied. "But I found something that I really need to show you guys. I can drive you back to the lab if you don't have faster transportation."

Everyone agreed silently and piled into Jazz's car. Sora was the last to get in, pulling Stitch in with great difficulty. The moment the doors were closed, Jazz hit the gas pedal, not bothering to wait if anyone was buckled in.

* * *

"The behemoth fell…why am I not surprised?"

The cloaked man stood silently atop a restaurant staring at where the heartless-turned-ghost once stood. He had made a major miscalculation in his plan, but it did not matter. He could make a few adjustments. Flexibility was a must in his occupation…not that he had a real one.

The keyblade master was interfering as usual, but with the halfa assisting him things would prove much more difficult than normal. Rather than spit upon the losses, however, the man grinned to himself. "This does _indeed_ call for a change of plans. Perhaps I should pay a certain ghost hunter a visit…"

And in a burst of darkness, he was gone.

* * *

"What's the big hurry, Jazz?" Danny asked, having changed back into a human once he had entered the car.

"I noticed Mom and Dad had started acting suspicious a while before Sora arrived," Jazz began. "It was only when we got news of him actually _coming_ that they started to go to town more often than normal. I started to do a few searches. Psychology wouldn't turn up anything, so I knew it had nothing to do with stress in relation to having extended visitation."

"Translation, please?"

"It means them acting weird has nothing to do with Sora's long visit, so to speak."

"But it can't be a coincidence," Sora said. "Why would they be out of town so often when they heard about me coming?"

"That's what I wanted to find out," Jazz replied, slowing to a stop in front of the house and carefully glancing around. "Good, they're not home yet. Come on."

The group followed Jazz to the basement, with Danny and Sora staying near the back of the group. As Stitch scampered alongside them, the keyblade master cocked an eyebrow. "Is your sister always like this?" he asked.

"Not always," Danny replied. "She only does this when she's really on to something. I haven't seen her like this in ages." He turned to his sister. "How'd you know where to look, sis?"

"I could tell the answer to my parents' weird actions as of late were in the lab because she left it in the note for Danny not to go down there," Jazz began. "Sometimes the best way to get someone to do something is to tell them not to do it."

"Not bad," Sora commented.

Jazz just grinned as she pushed open the door to the lab. "It's a psychology thing," she replied, returning to the subject at hand. "While I was going through some of Mom and Dad's files, I found out that they're getting commissioned by someone."

"Commissioned?" Danny echoed. "That's never happened before."

"It is now," Jazz replied. "Danny, could you get the box off the top shelf for me?"

"Sure thing," the halfa replied, quickly swapping to ghost form and grabbing the box. He placed it on the floor, where Jazz opened it and quickly began flipping through.

"The guy paying them is going to give them a pretty hefty sum," she said. "The invention they're working on is really weird. The details I made out had something to do with permanently fusing a creature's DNA with ectoplasmic energy. I'm no ghost expert so I'm not sure what it means. They also wanted Mom and Dad to create something close to…uh…" Jazz paused. "Danny, you remember that machine that messed with you and Morpho that one time?"

"The one that clogged up my ghost powers _without_ shrinking me in the process?" Danny suggested, mentally remembering the fiasco with Dash and Skulker when he had been shrunk to the size of a golf ball. He had since found a new appreciation for his father's terrible golf skills and warned Jazz to 'watch where you sweat,' much to her confusion.

"Yeah, that one." Jazz went right back to her search. "The guy commissioning our parents wants to make something completely opposite of it."

"Why would the Fentons make something to _strengthen_ a ghost's powers?" Tucker asked. "They're ghost _hunters_, not ghost _helpers_."

Jazz shook her head. "I'm not sure, but the one paying them wanted that and the DNA machine fused into one device. My guess is that whenever they're in town, they're either at conferences with their commissioner or they're getting parts at the store. That check they were offered for when the job was done has a lot of zeros at the end of it, so I doubt either mom or dad thought twice about the job."

"Unless they're being overshadowed," Danny added quickly.

"That's a possibility too," Sam groaned. "But if they're being overshadowed, who's doing it?"

"We don't even know if they're being overshadowed in the first place," Jazz said sternly.

"Jazz is right," Sora said. "We should probably work with what we've got. Do we know anything about the commissioner?"

"Other than the fact that he's filthy rich?" Jazz asked. "Not much at all."

"Vlad's a candidate when it comes to money," Danny said, rubbing his chin while hovering over the floor, "But I doubt that it's him."

"Do we have a name?" Sora asked. "A picture? Anything?"

"Let me pull out the check," Jazz said, digging in one of the confidential files in the back. "Why they keep something so valuable back here, I have no clue…ah, here it is!" She pulled out the slip of paper and examined it closely. "Augh, I can't make out who it's from…"

Sora crossed his arms and grinned. "I bet Stitch can."

"Stitch?"

On cue, Stitch padded forward and sniffed the check carefully. It only took him a split second to identify the smell, and he immediately began growling. Sora cocked an eyebrow. "Well, Stitch apparently recognizes it. Who do you think-"

Before a reply could be made, the sound of the door opening upstairs rang out. "Danny! Jazz! We're home!"

"This can't be good," Sam grumbled. "We're supposed to stay out of here!"

"I can't phase us all out of here fast enough," Danny agreed, frantically putting the box back in its original place. "The Ghost Zone is our only chance to hide!"

"I'll keep them busy," Jazz said determinedly. "You guys get into the Specter Speeder!"

The agreement was silent. Everyone loaded into the vehicle and they sped toward the portal. As Sora glanced back through the rear-view monitor, he could see Jazz racing up the stairs just as the portal to the ghost zone passed by them. Next to him, Danny let out a sigh of relief as the speeder made it all the way through. "Whew…close one."

"Don't you think this is a bit extreme for getting out of trouble?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah," Sam said, agreeing. "You could have just turned us all invisible or something."

"They've been working in the lab constantly," Danny explained. "We'd be stuck standing there until kingdom come if we hadn't gotten out of there."

"Good point," Sora said, staring out the window. "I just have one question."

"What's that?" Danny asked.

"Who's that, and why is he firing at us?"

Danny didn't have time to look in the direction that Sora was when a huge blast of green slammed into the side of the speeder. Tucker, whom was driving, hit the gas pedal while Stitch growled angrily and clawed at the window in protest. There, following them, was a humanoid ghost wearing a metal battle suit armed with numerous cannons, a PDA, and a set of jet-powered wings. Danny winced. "Tucker, get us out of here! It's Skulker!"

But they hadn't gone far when the ghost appeared right in front of them, grinning. "I have you now, Ghost child."


	11. Fairly Odd Circumstances

Whew! Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been participating in National Novel Writing Month (and I still am). In between doing that I've been adding bits and pieces of this together. The next chapter will be a ways off, but I assure you this fic WILL be completed.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Eleven: Fairly Odd Circumstances  
**

* * *

Sora stared blankly at the cyborg ghost hovering in front of them. "Can someone please tell me what's going on here?" he asked.

"That's Skulker," Sam explained quickly, "The self-proclaimed greatest hunter in the Ghost Realm. He's after Danny."

_So this is him,_ Sora observed. Danny had given a brief description to him of the ghost that night after he had returned from a quick ghost patrol. He couldn't remember all the details right off the bat, but he did know for certain that this ghost was no ally of theirs. Stitch ran right up to the windshield and growled angrily at the ghost.

While the gesture was plenty intimidating, Skulker actually seemed interested. "I've never seen a creature like _that_ before," he commented. "Such an advanced life form…"

"He's got a name," Sora protested, "And it's Stitch!" The little blue alien nodded in agreement and jabbered a stream of gibberish in compliance, which Sora mentally translated as something similar to 'yes'.

Skulker scoffed. "It matters not what its name is; that creature _will_ be mine once the ghost boy is in my clutches!"

Danny phased through the roof and fired an ectoplasmic blast just past Skulker's left wing. "Don't you have other things to worry about?" he grumbled loudly. "I thought your island was being invaded by monsters or something."

"My island is rigged with traps of all types," Skulker replied. "Any monster that dares set foot on it won't last long. You know that firsthand!"

The ghost-boy dodged a few shots from Skulker and counter attacked with his own ectoplasmic projectiles. As they fought, Stitch climbed back toward Sora and spoke a few quick words. Sora shook his head in reply. "No, Stitch. We're only supposed to be here to avoid Danny's parents because we weren't supposed to be in the lab."

"What's he saying?" Tucker asked.

"He was asking if we came in here to track down Skulker," Sora replied, with Stitch nodding in approval.

"Now that I think about it," Sam intoned, "This was sort of a split-second decision. How are we supposed to get back without being noticed? Danny's parents are bound to be working in there until late."

Stitch ignored their conversation, instead, tapping on the glass and pointing at Skulker, talking at a furiously fast pace. Sora's attention was caught. "I know, Stitch. We really can't afford to be wasting energy on this guy."

"We should probably weaken him at least," Tucker suggested, watching as Danny defended the speeder with a fairly large ectoplasmic shield. "Or we could just drive him off."

Danny's eyes widened. "That's it!" He cried. "Tucker, remember what you did at the zoo?"

The techo-geek caught on very quickly. "Way ahead of you," he replied, grinning and pulling his PDA. He was just about to type in a few commands when Sora stopped him.

"I have a better idea," the keyblade master said. He opened the side door and leaned half-way out. The position was awkward and he could barely grip the keyblade right, but with much determination he managed to hold himself still. With careful aim, he fired off a thunder spell, zapping one of Skulker's arms and blasting the cannons off of it in the process.

Before Skulker could react, Danny blasted him square in the chest. "We don't have time for you," he grumbled. "We only came in here to avoid my parents and their crazy project."

"Those pitiful ghost hunters are no threat against me," Skulker protested, glaring angrily at Danny while recovering from the hit.

"But their commissioner _is_," Sora called, dismissing the keyblade momentarily. Stitch crawled across the dashboard and outside the craft, shouting a few rather loud remarks at Skulker while shaking a fist.

Sora was unable to translate the blue creature's speech, but apparently Skulker understood it clearly. He stared blankly at the alien before commenting. "What did you just say?"

Everyone's attention was directed to Stitch, whom rambled again before Skulker narrowed his eyes in contemplation. Danny blinked. "Wait, you know what he's saying?"

"Of course I do," Skulker replied. "But I don't know what he's talking about. Something about dark creatures."

Sora made a mental note to thank Stitch later. "Have you seen any of those dark creatures around here?" he asked. Sam and Tucker shot him an odd look, and he was certain why; they had already encountered heartless in the Ghost Zone previously. Why ask again?

Skulker, however, nodded. "I have. They were swarming my island just earlier. It took me ages to get rid of them; they just kept coming."

"We've run into our own share in the human world," Danny replied. "Those creatures don't belong here, evil or not."

"I think if we find who brought them here in the first place we should be able to slow them down," Sora added.

"And why should I trust you?" Skulker demanded, re-focusing his glare on Danny. "Don't give me that 'our worlds are linked' speech, ghost child. How am I supposed to know that this isn't a trick?"

Before Danny could respond, Stitch sat back on his haunches and crossed his arms, gibbering a few quick words that caught Skulker's undivided attention. Sora watched the hunter's expression go from suspicious to intrigued. He swept back toward Danny and the group. "I'm listening."

"What'd he say?" Tucker asked Sora, obviously referring to what Stitch had told Skulker. Sora shrugged; he wasn't very fluent in alien language so he hadn't the slightest idea.

"We went to Clockwork yesterday to ask about these things," Danny began. "He said that the person telling the monsters what to do is someone I know. I think he said 'a ghost of incredible power.' I know that he's not referring to you or anyone else I run into regularly."

"Of course not," Skulker scoffed. "We would sooner put ourselves in your thermos voluntarily than try to command a dark force that we know nothing about."

Danny nodded, smirking. "So, how about it, Skulker? Will you help us?"

Skulker grinned threateningly. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. For now."

"Déjà vu," Danny mumbled, quirking an eyebrow.

"Don't get too sensitive," the hunter warned. "I'm not trying to save _you_. We wouldn't lift a finger to help _your_ world, but if _our_ world is in jeopardy then we'll do anything to save it. _That_ is what we're aiming for."

Sora winced. _Talk about a reluctant ally,_ he thought. Sam and Tucker had unsure expressions, but they didn't say anything.

"Spread the word around for everyone to be on the lookout for dark creatures," Danny said, a great tone of authority in his voice. "If we all work together we'll be able to get rid of them. If anyone finds the guy behind of all this chaos or at least a lead of some sort, let me know as soon as possible."

"Simple enough," Skulker grumbled. "Word travels very quickly in the Ghost Realm."

"Another thing," Danny quickly added. "My parents are working on another invention, and I already know that this one is a huge threat."

Skulker's attention was hooked. "A threat from those two?" he began uneasily. He obviously didn't believe them.

"Remember the Fenton Crammer?" Danny said. "It's sort of like that, only it strengthens power instead of blocking it out."

"Why would they willingly make something like that?"

Danny shook his head. "They're not. They're getting paid a commission by someone who's definitely with the enemy. We don't know many details about it, but we know it's not good, considering our enemy is probably a ghost. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have a repeat of Pariah Dark."

"All the more reason to stop them then," Skulker growled. "I'll take care of the ghost zone. You take care of _your _world." With that, he flew off without another word.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Danny flew back into the Speeder. "That was easy," he observed. "Skulker doesn't always listen that well."

Sora pulled himself back into the vehicle and Stitch scrambled in just before he shut the window. "He didn't really seem to trust you until Stitch spoke up," the keyblade master pointed out. "Whatever Stitch said must have really gotten his attention."

"What did he say?" Sam asked.

Stitch just grinned in reply. Sora knew that look; he wasn't getting any answers from him any time soon.

"We should head back to Danny's," Tucker said. "They're going to start wondering where we are."

"Problem," Danny said. "My parents will probably be in the lab by now."

Sora cast a stray glance at Stitch and grinned. "I think I have a way to handle that."

* * *

Danny knew Sora was a bit odd, but now he thought the spikey-haired brunette was completely insane. He was not partial to this idea at all. His parents weren't the best ghost hunters around, that was true, but while his father was a huge klutz, he was also rather intimidating, and his mother was actually quite good at taking down ghosts. He knew this fact firsthand when he was trying to convince his father to catch him in effort to cheer him up, only to be caught by surprise when his mother appeared behind him. He had since never looked at vacuum cleaners the same way.

"Why do _I_ have to be the live bait?" the halfa grumbled as the speeder halted near the portal. "Why can't we let Stitch or someone else do it?"

The said creature began to protest when Sora held him down. "Your parents are ghost hunters," he replied calmly. "If you can distract them long enough, I have a way of getting us out without being noticed. Just get them to focus away from the portal and away from the exit at the same time. That's all I'll need."

"I really don't like this," Sam commented. "What if Danny gets caught? How will we get in then?"

"Even if he _does _get caught," Sora said calmly, "We can get him out. All we need is a distraction, trust me."

Tucker narrowed his eyes and glanced at Stitch. "Can we trust Sora?" he asked.

Stitch nodded eagerly.

Danny groaned. "Fine," he replied, grabbing one of the communicators that he usually stowed away on the speeder and putting it on his head. "Should I destroy some of their progress, too?"

"Only if you can manage it," Sora said. "Let us know when they're distracted well enough and I'll come in."

Danny toggled his invisibility and flew through the portal. Inside, he found both of his parents working hard on their commission…at least, that's what he assumed. His mother was at the computer working on some calculations while his father was digging through some scrap metal in some of the boxes in the corner.

"Jack, don't you think this is a bit odd?" His mother began. "I don't think anyone normal would request something like this…"

"Did you see how many zeros were on that check, Maddie?" Jack protested, a wide grin on his face. "Whoever buys this thing off of us when it's done, we're going to end up rich!"

Maddie shook her head. "The fusion of ectoplasm with someone or some_thing_'s DNA structure is just impossible. Even if we did manage to find a way to do it, what good would it do? Besides, without the prototype, we've been set back by at least a week…"

Danny chuckled humorlessly. _I think I'd have a pretty good idea, Mom. Actually, I already do. _Flying over to the far wall, he found a place floating over some shelves and became visible. "I hope you're ready," he said into the communicator.

The reaction was immediate. Jack dove for the Fenton Bazooka and Maddie grabbed the Thermos. Danny gritted his teeth. "Hurry up, Sora! I'd rather not be crammed in the Thermos again!"

"_Again?"_

"Long story," Danny replied, bracing himself for pain as a high-pitched whine accompanied the imminent fire from the Fenton Bazooka. A light slowly brightened in the nozzle of the weapon…

"Stopga!"

…and then everyone froze.

Danny blinked, looking up with only one eye cracked open. His father and mother were both frozen on the spot, and there was a blast from the Fenton Bazooka paused in mid-air. He checked his neck for a time medallion and found nothing; Clockwork wasn't interfering here. "What was that?" he wondered aloud.

The Fenton Speeder exited the portal. Tucker, Sam, Sora and Stitch exited. "It won't last long," the keyblade master stated. "Let's get out of here while they're still stopped."

The halfa, deciding once again to trust first and ask questions later, had no argument with that. He flew through the lab door, his friends following closely. A few minutes later the lab exploded with several surprised screams, a few crashes and what had to be a blast from the Fenton Bazooka.

* * *

"So what'd you find out?" Tucker asked. "I mean, I know it's not really easy to find much out in only five seconds, but you must have seen _something_."

"The usual, actually," Danny replied. "Mom's pretty skeptical about the whole thing, but Dad's really infatuated with all the zeros on the commissioner's check."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Doesn't _that_ sound familiar," she said dryly, glaring at Danny.

Danny looked away. He knew precisely what she was referring to. In attempt to get back on subject, he shook his head and continued. "The important thing is that they're _not_ being overshadowed. My ghost sense didn't go off, so they're probably not morphs, either."

"You mean they're doing this out of their free will?" Tucker exclaimed.

"Yeah," Danny replied. "I'm glad they're still themselves, but it still bothers me that they're working on this."

It was at that moment that Stitch jumped off of his place on Danny's bed and began speaking at a lightning-fast pace. All eyes moved to the little blue furball as it spoke, making wild gestures. Once he was finished, Sam turned to Sora. "You get any of that?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. He said that Danny's mom mentioned a prototype that went missing. The behemoth that we fought today turned into a ghost, or at least got some weird ghostly powers. Someone must have stolen the prototype and used it on the behemoth in their own little test run."

"Do you think it was the same person that's commissioning it?" Danny asked. When Stitch nodded, he sighed and glared out the window as though the sky outside were the cause of all his problems. "Well, at least we don't have to look for more than one person to get to the bottom of this mess."

Stitch turned to Sora and spoke again. The keyblade master nodded. "That does sound like an option."

"What'd he say now?" Tucker asked.

"He said that if we could get into their computer and check out their progress and data on the project, we could be able to find out more about the project and maybe the comissioner."

"Hack into their computer?" the techno-geek echoed. "Are you nuts?"

"Are _you_ nuts?" Sam interrupted. "Tucker, you've hacked into present and future versions of Skulker, among other things. Getting into Danny's computer can't be hard."

"Not Danny's computer," Tucker pointed out. "His Dad's. I tried before and it was a pain to get in. Not as hard as most other computers, but still a pain."

"You hacked into my Dad's computer?" Danny asked. "When? And…why?"

Tucker rolled his eyes as though he did it every day. "I did it while your family went on that camping trip. I was going to warn you about Youngblood but you came back with him in the thermos and I decided not to bring it up."

"Anyway," Sam began, hoping to keep the conversation on track, "Getting into the lab computer sounds like a good idea, but your dad's got a security system on it that gives Tucker a headache. Got any ideas?"

"We can't really go directly down there," Sora said. "Your dad will catch us in the lab and he'll be furious." Stitch began to speak up, and Sora was about to wave him off when his attention was caught. "Actually, Stitch, that's not a bad idea."

"What's not a bad idea?" Danny asked.

Sora ignored the question and asked his own. "Danny, didn't you say that you could overshadow people?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Tell me what it's like. I think I might have a plan"

Danny furrowed his eyebrows and thought. "Okay," he said. "I don't do it a lot, but I know pretty well what it's like. It's kind of situational. If I overshadow a person, I can control them, but if they're asleep I can pretty much hack into their dreams."

"Maybe you could overshadow one of your parents and get them to get the information for you?" Sora suggested.

While Danny wasn't keen on the idea of doing it, he knew the plan was a good one. _But there's still one flaw… _"Wouldn't work," he said, shaking his head. "They've got a password on the computer that I don't know."

"Wait," Tucker said, getting everyone's attention. "Danny, remember when you had to come in late after that make-up test with Lancer?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah. We were fighting Technus in Doomed. I had to use my ghost powers to catch…" He paused, grinning at the thought. "I see where you're going with this, Tuck."

Sora blinked. "Am I missing something again?"

"Technus is a ghost that can overshadow stuff just like me," Danny explained, "But he can only do it to technology. I ended up overshadowing my computer to catch up to Sam and Tucker, and I was _inside_ the game. I don't know about you guys, but I think it might work again."

"So you're going to hack in from the inside?" Sora asked, crossing his arms. "Sounds impressive. Mind if I join you for the ride?"

Danny blinked. "You're acting pretty calm about all of this."

Sora placed his hands behind his head casually. "I'm posing as a transfer student in order to fight heartless when one of the kids living where I'm staying is half-ghost. Honestly, this doesn't come as a huge surprise to me. Besides, I've been in a computer before."

"You have?"

"It's a long story."

_Almost everything is,_ Danny observed. "The safest time to do it is when Mom and Dad head to the store. They usually spend ages there."

"Good plan," Tucker began. "I just see one flaw in it."

"What's that?"

"What if they come back before you can finish up?"

Danny crossed his arms, grinning. His eyes glowed a mischievous, neon green "What do _you_ think?"

* * *

Well, back to NaNoWriMo. I hope this chapter was good!


	12. Nightmarish Intrusion

Yes, I'm still doing NaNoWriMo. But here's the next chapter anyway. I hope it's decent.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Twelve: Nightmarish Intrusion**

* * *

The plan had been set. The next day was Sunday, so Danny's parents would probably be heading to the store for Sunday Clearance sale to pick up some parts for the project, leaving the group clear to do some heavy-duty hacking. Until then, Danny would have to do a bit of research on his own and Sora would have to contact the HBRC to report his findings. Sam and Tucker had already gone home for the day, so Sora was free from having to explain too much. Stitch had found a place on the bed and had curled up to sleep, not bothered by the two teens at the desk.

The screen flickered a few times until a man that Danny vaguely recognized as Sora's posing father appeared. "Leon here. I heard you broke some rules, Sora."

The keyblade master's shoulders drooped. "I couldn't help it, Leon. You know what would happen if I let a crowd of heartless that big get away."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. We both fought one, remember?" He sighed, typing a bit at his computer. "Anyway, Yuffie filled the rest of us in on your current situation. Is that Danny behind you?"

Sora nodded at the halfa, whom scooted into the camera's view. "Yeah. Hi."

"We did a bit of research about Amity Park and we found out that there is another halfa that you didn't mention. Care to fill us in?"

"There's _another_ halfa?" Sora echoed in astonishment.

"She's the only other one besides me and Plasmius," Danny explained. "Her name is Danielle. She's pretty much got all of the same powers as me, besides the ice powers." _Or the ghostly wail. She can overshadow people like I can, but maybe I haven't mentioned that…_

"Is she an enemy, too?" Leon asked sternly.

Danny chuckled humorlessly. _If only he knew!_ "She was for a while since Plasmius had her tricked, but she's helped me out a few times. She's kind of like a cousin or little sister to me. Why do you ask?"

"Her name was Danielle?" Leon asked no one in particular. "We had someone like that show up at headquarters before we sent you over."

"You're kidding!" Sora and Danny exclaimed at the same time.

Leon's fingers scrambled across the keyboard for a few seconds until a familiar picture of a white-haired, green-eyed girl appeared. "Does this young lady look familiar to you, Danny?"

Danny's eyes widened. "That's her! That's Danielle!"

"I thought so," Leon said. "Sora, you remember the lead we had that led you to Amity Park, right?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. We were getting some weird readings from here. At first we thought they were ghosts, but one day Cid just walked up to me and started going on about how there were heartless here." There was a pause as Sora's eyes narrowed in realization. "Leon, what happened in-between? I know there's something I'm missing."

"That girl Danielle was here in what was apparently her human form," Leon explained. "She didn't tell us her name or anything else; only that she was from Amity Park and that she had been attacked by those black creatures."

"She's still okay, isn't she?" Danny demanded.

Leon nodded impatiently. "She had a few scratches, but she healed up very quickly. Aerith and Tifa are looking after her."

Danny let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "That's a relief…"

"But I don't get it," Sora said. "How did she manage to get from Amity Park to Radiant Garden? How can _anyone_ travel that far?"

"She could have flown or snuck onto a bus or something," Danny suggested.

Leon gave a rare smirk and crossed his arms. "I see you haven't broken as many rules as we thought you had, Sora."

Sora shook his head. "I only mentioned what the heartless do and their existence. I didn't go beyond that for…" He glanced at his backpack momentarily. "…personal reasons."

Danny quirked an eyebrow. "There's more you haven't told me, isn't there?"

The keyblade master didn't bother to glance at the boy. "Yep."

"You might have to break one more rule just to clear that mess up," Leon commented. "Don't worry about getting in trouble; everyone thinks you've already broken that one."

Sora hesitated, taking a deep breath and glancing back and forth between the screen and Danny. "I will when the time is right," he said quietly. "Give one answer and you're bound to be asked more questions. I still have nightmares about that day, you know."

Danny narrowed his eyes. _Whatever they're going on about must be something Sora doesn't like to talk about very much. But if it involves breaking their rules, then whatever happened to Sora definitely involves the heartless…_ He sighed, biting his lip._ I'll have to ask him about it later._

Leon began speaking again, snapping Danny from his thoughts. "Anyway, we've been taking good care of Danielle, so don't worry about her. She's still a bit weak in the knees, but we'll send her back to Amity as soon as she's rested up." He glanced at the door. "If those heartless would stop pestering her, it wouldn't take so long."

"She's been attacked by heartless?" Danny exclaimed in horror.

"And she taught them a lesson," Leon replied, crossing his arms. "She packs a pretty mean punch for her size. Anyway, you had something you wanted to report, Sora? You sounded pretty urgent when you called; I'm sure this isn't just a normal check-in."

Sora nodded. "There's someone commissioning the Fentons to make a weapon for them. It's basically supposed to turn something into a ghost – or at least give it ghost powers. It's also supposed to be able to amplify a ghost's power. Stitch found a familiar scent on the check handed in to the Fentons to get them started on a prototype. It's probably someone from Organization XIII paying them."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Leon replied. "We haven't exactly gotten all of them yet, and from the reports you sent in, one of them is the one supplying heartless. The question is which one?"

"We don't have all of them down yet," Sora said sternly. "We don't even know if they're part of Organization XIII. Not everyone that wears a black cloak like that is part of the Organization, remember? The king used it to disguise himself once."

"We'll work with the data that you've given us so far," Leon said. "Report back in if you find anything else."

Sora nodded. "I will."

"Wait!" Danny cried. "Can't I at least see Danielle?"

Leon shook his head. "Aerith said that it's crucial for her to be resting right now. We will send her your regards, however."

Danny smiled and nodded. "That would be great."

"Oh, Sora," Leon began. "Thanks for getting Stitch out of the lab for us. Any plans on keeping it that way?"

Sora laughed and shook his head. "Sorry, Leon. He has to go back sooner or later. You know the only way I'm keeping him here is…"

Leon nodded in silent agreement. "Right. Don't overdo yourself. You know how Aerith gets when you're hurt."

The screen faded to static and turned off. Sora quickly stowed it away in his backpack and made for the sleeping bag again. Danny watched, his arms crossed. "What's this other rule you haven't broken?"

Sora stiffened, his hand half-way in his backpack. Danny smirked inwardly in victory. _Bingo. Definitely something huge._ He sat on his bed. "Come on, Sora. You can tell me. I know Danielle could have just used normal transportation to get to your friends at that Radiant Garden place."

"No, she couldn't."

The bluntness in the statement caused Danny to pause. "How far away is that place, anyway?" He asked.

"Too far to get to normally," Sora replied. "It's not important right now. We just need to stop the heartless from trashing Amity Park and the Ghost Zone and then we won't have to worry."

_He's avoiding it again, _Danny grumbled. "Look, Sora. I don't want to get it out of you the hard way. I know you're hiding something from me; something really important if you're having nightmares about it. Clockwork said that the time for secrets has passed."

Sora's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, well _this_ is a secret that I'd rather not tell _anyone_," He snapped back. "Some things are better left unsaid, Danny. I'll tell you eventually, but not now. There's just too much to deal with right now, and I'm not about to put you under any more pressure than you're already dealing with." Abandoning the issue, Sora tucked himself into the sleeping bag and turned away from Danny, dismissing the issue.

Danny sighed, sitting on the bed and resting his chin on his hand. _But if it's eating you up on the inside,_ he thought, _Then it'll only make it worse if you don't tell someone, even if it does mean breaking the rules._ "I just want to help."

"Sora have hard life."

There was a brief moment of silence when Danny heard the almost-silent voice. Turning to the side, he saw Stitch sitting upright and staring at Sora with an odd sadness in his eyes. Danny blinked. "What do you mean?" _Wow, he can finally talk in English?_

"Sora fight many heartless since he find keyblade. Not want to put problem on Danny. Not want to hurt friends. Sora has promise to keep."

Danny's expression softened. Sora didn't want to drag him into his problems, so he didn't talk about his own. He had a good intent, but Danny knew more than anyone that this wasn't the way to go about it. He sighed. "I want to help him," he muttered. "He's gone through a lot, I know he is. He's still feeling it, too. Friends are supposed to help each other. He can talk to me."

The little blue alien jumped down from the bed and curled up next to Sora. "Stitch like Danny. Stitch thinks Danny is good friend to Sora." With that, the little alien closed his eyes and fell asleep.

With a sigh, Danny watched Sora as he slept. The boy shivered a few times, but Danny knew that it wasn't cold in his room. _He's having a nightmare,_ he concluded. _A nightmare about his past, maybe. It's a wonder he gets any sleep with all that in his head._ He was about to turn in himself when he felt a thought float to his head. Sighing, he hid under the covers and transformed, taking a deep breath. _Sorry, Sora; but if you're not going to tell me what's bothering you, I'll have to figure out myself._ With an oath, he made himself intangible and plunged toward Sora.

* * *

The first thing that Danny saw was a blackened sky. It had to be night, he knew it. But in the sky was a swirling mass of what he could only describe as darkness. Danny looked below him and saw a small island in the middle of what could only be a vast, endless ocean. He could see a boy running along the docks, away from small black creatures that reminded Danny of the heartless that had attacked Amity Park, only these seemed much less threatening. When he flew closer, careful to keep invisible, Danny recognized the boy running.

…_Sora?_

The dream image of Sora seemed somewhat younger and had different clothes on than what Danny knew. He also had a crude wooden sword clutched in his hand rather than the familiar keyblade. Danny quirked an eyebrow. _Why is he running? He can kick the crud out of those things._

Sora finally stopped on a small platform off the side of the island, where another boy with long, silver hair stood. "Where's Kairi?!" Sora cried. "I thought she was with you!"

"The door has opened."

Danny blinked, confused. Apparently, Sora shared the same sentiment. "Wha?"

"Sora," The boy repeated in an excited tone, "Now we can go to the outside world!"

_Outside world?_ Danny echoed in his mind. _Who does he think he is, an astronaut?_

"What are you talking about?!" Sora replied. "We have to find Kai-"

"She's coming with us!" The boy snapped back, his excitement suddenly replaced with a strange expression of foreboding. "Sora, this is our only chance. Once we step through, we won't be able to turn back, and we may never see our parents again…but this is our only chance, and we can't let fear stop us. _I'm not afraid of the darkness!_"

On cue, a burst of black erupted from the ground beneath the silver-haired boy. In horror, Sora raced forward. "Riku, no! Don't!"

It took all of Danny's willpower not to interfere as the air grew stiff and goose bumps went down his spine. It was only Sora's dream; he knew he couldn't interfere, even as the darkness grew stronger and stronger around the two boys. Sora reached desperately for his friend's outstretched hand, but the silver-haired boy made no effort to reach back. They slowly became engulfed in the black tendrils rising from the ground…

…and then everything stopped.

Danny blinked blankly. _Did Sora wake up?_ He thought. _No…if he did, I would have been ejected. Why am I still-_

There was no time to finish the thought as an invisible burst of energy slammed into Danny and shoved him backward. Sora's dream became a blur as he was shoved back onto the beach far behind him, but when he opened his eyes, he found that instead of the beach, he had landed on a small patch of land, the dark sphere crackling above him and chunks of land swirling in the vortex above. As he managed to stand up, another burst knocked him again to his knees. Danny looked up, seeing a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy standing over him, wearing a black shirt, a white vest, khaki pants and large black tennis shoes. He would have seemed like a friend had he not been pointing a keyblade at Danny's throat.

"What are you doing here?!"


	13. Someone From the Dark

Before we get started on this chapter, I have to say a few things. I'm not mad at anyone, just making a quick note and stuff just so you guys know.

There is one fanfic author here (I won't mention any names) that loved one of my ideas so much he asked to borrow one for a story of his own. While this is completely fine with me, I asked that he credit me for the idea so as to avoid plagiarism, and he did so. He is a respectable author, thus I'm giving a thank-you to him. You know who you are. Thanks for crediting me!

This may be a fanfiction site, but plagiarism is still as good as stealing here, just lie it is in the real publication world. If you want to borrow one or more of my ideas – or anyone else's for that matter – just ask first, and if the author lets you, credit them in your author's notes or something if you do end up using them. Trust me, they'll appreciate it.

Now that that's been said, I've been checking my story stats and I've noticed that this story is gaining popularity more rapidly than I anticipated. I'm glad everyone enjoys this story, and I am having a great time writing it. Thank you all for your great reviews and encouragement! Now, without further ado, here's chapter 13! I would have made this longer, but many of you were so eager to see how Danny and Roxas would react to each other I went ahead and posted this.

Quick note: The title of this chapter comes from how Roxas introduces himself in KH2.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Thirteen: Someone From the Dark**

* * *

Danny could hardly believe who he was looking at. Aside from the different clothes and hair, this person was practically the spitting image of Sora. What really made the halfa suspicious was that unlike Sora, this person apparently wasn't very fond of him, and was holding a keyblade just like Sora's inches from what had to be a lethal pressure point. This sort of thing hadn't happened the last few times he went into anyone's dream; when he had overshadowed Nocturne's dream the only other intruders were Sam and the sleepwalkers, but the sleepwalkers were Nocturne's minions and he had brought Sam along personally. He hadn't brought this kid with him, so who _was_ he?

"Let me ask you again," the kid said through grit teeth, "What are you doing here?"

"Why should I tell you?" Danny asked. "You're not my friend or Sora's if you're holding a weapon on me like that."

"How can you be Sora's friend if you're intruding on his dream?" the boy demanded.

This caused Danny to hesitate. "Wait a sec…how do you know I'm overshadowing Sora's dream?"

"Just get out!" The boy cried, brandishing the keyblade and swinging it down. Danny went intangible and phased through the attack, flying up into the air above the boy and firing a quick barrage of ecto-blasts. They were easily evaded by the boy, whom leapt up to an extraordinary height and sent a slash heading right for Danny. The halfa managed to put up an ecto-shield just before he would have been hit, but the strike from the stranger's keyblade hit it so hard he faltered for a few moments before the shield gave way, shattering into countless fragments and vaporizing.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that this boy was an extremely formidable opponent. Danny barely managed to keep his focus; _no one_ had ever managed to break his ecto-shield like _that_ before. He quickly considered using his ghostly wail, but he decided to play it safe and remain in ghost form. _Maybe I can convince him to help me get out of here. It'd help both of us. He _does_ want me to get out, after all. _"I can't get out of this dream unless Sora wakes up from it!" Danny cried in his defense. "At least, that's the only way I know how, other than getting killed."

"Then I can show you the way out if you want," the boy growled, slashing angrily at him. Danny countered the attack with a quickly-made yet decently thick wall of ice, but the keyblade smashed through it as though it weren't even there. The boy struck the flat, less-painful side of the keyblade into Danny's back, sending him tumbling off to the side and clinging to the edge of the tiny platform of land. With a quick thought, he flew upward and landed behind the boy, preparing a sneak-attack of sorts, only to have the keyblade slam into his stomach and throw him back.

"Knock it off!" Danny cried. "If I die here, I _really _die! The only other way out is if Sora wakes up and I fall out of his dream right in front of him. I would really prefer to come back in one piece and exposed rather than dead!"

The boy narrowed his eyes, pointing the keyblade at him threateningly. "If you knew the consequences, why did you come in the first place?" he demanded.

"Because he's my _friend_," Danny replied, "And I want to help him. This nightmare is obviously bothering him, and I want to know why!"

"And how are _you_ going to help him?" the boy asked suspiciously. "Giving in to the darkness? The last person Sora knows that tried that ended up trapped behind the _door_."

Danny scoffed. "I'm not about to give into any darkness. If Sora's having trouble with whatever this nightmare is, I'll help in any way I can; but I can't do _anything _if you kill me!"

The boy froze for a moment, then lowered his keyblade. "You'd really do that, Danny?"

Danny's eyes widened in shock. "How'd you know my name?"

"Long story," the boy replied. "But I'll tell you mine. It's Roxas, and I'm what you call a Nobody."

"A Nobody…?"

Roxas looked away, apparently angry about something. "When a person's heart falls completely to darkness and becomes a heartless, the empty shell they leave behind starts acting on its own. Not all of them end up looking like people, but if they're strong enough they do. Nobodies aren't the actual people we once represented, and technically we don't exist because the light won't accept us, and the darkness won't either."

"But a Nobody has a heart, right?" Danny asked. "Just not with them. If they reunite with their heart, then can't they become whole people again?"

"Usually," Roxas replied.

"What happens then? Do you go back to normal?"

Roxas began to answer, but he shook his head. "You do," he said carefully, "But not quite like before. Nobodies don't have hearts, but we _do_ remember what it's like, so we still have thoughts and emotions, even though we really shouldn't. When we're put back together with our heart and we become 'normal' again, the person's heart is in control, but the nobody tends to get some of its influence through. It's kind of like two for the price of one. One person I met called it a parasitic relationship." He shuddered.

Danny nodded. "Who has _your_ heart?" he asked. "Can you tell me? I could bring it back to you."

"I could," Roxas said with an odd smile, "But he wouldn't be too happy with me."

"Why not?"

Roxas stared at the ground. "Because he brought it about himself."

Danny stood, brushing off his pants. "Why would someone want to split themselves in half?" he asked, remembering the incident he had once had with the Fenton Ghost Catcher. "I've done it before, though not quite with a heartless and nobody…it wasn't exactly fun."

"I could show you," Roxas offered, "But it'd be easier if you came in while Sora was dreaming about it."

"Hold the phone," Danny cried. "You're actually _inviting_ me to barge in on Sora's dreams again?"

"You don't know him quite as well as I do," Roxas replied, crossing his arms and shaking his head in disappointment. "He can be pretty stubborn. Besides, he sort of owes me anyway."

Danny shook his head. "I really don't like the idea of this."

Roxas only shrugged. "It's either barge in and force him or worm it out of him the hard way. He has a hard time telling people about that particular event, but what he was dreaming about tonight was a bit easier to tell some people."

"Like Yuffie and those other guys?" Danny asked, recalling the various webcam conversations.

"_Especially_ them," Roxas replied. "They were the ones that even told him what was happening in the first place. He was so confused he barely knew right from left."

The world around them shook briefly. While Danny had a tough time keeping his composure, Roxas remained completely calm. "Looks like he'll be waking up soon. I'm pretty sure you can get out of here with a bit of focus. Try it."

Danny nodded. "Okay…here goes." He closed his eyes, not sure what to focus on, but he eventually settled for an image of his room. A strange warm wind swept around him, and he opened his eyes to find himself hovering over his bed. Sora was still fast asleep in his sleeping bag, although now he seemed to be sleeping a lot more peacefully. Danny hadn't noticed it before, but Sora had never seemed peaceful in his sleep until now. Maybe it had something to do with that Roxas person trusting him. _Thanks, Roxas…wherever you are._

Glancing at the clock and noticing that he still had six hours to sleep, Danny quietly pushed his way under the covers for a bit more shuteye. Hopefully the next day would pass without a hitch. Just before he blacked out into blissful slumber, he thought he saw Roxas sitting on his computer chair.

* * *

So, there's your Roxas encounter, everyone. I hope it was enjoyable. Next up: COMPUTER HACKAGE!


	14. Data Based

Sorry for taking so long, guys! I was caught up in making videos, writing _Playing for Keeps_ AND writing my novel. I haven't forgotten this fic, though! This chapter is a bit short, but I promise the next will be juicy!

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Fourteen: Data-Based**

* * *

The cloaked man crossed his arms. Time was running short. If he was to accomplish his goal, he needed the Fentons to complete their work quickly. The ghost boy was getting in his way, but that was to be expected. For now, he could only wait…though, having Plasmius as such a _courteous_ host could come in handy. _He doesn't even know I am aware of his little secret…_

But the keyblade master was still a problem. If he managed to find the keyhole before the heartless reached the point where they needed to be, then his plans would be foiled. He needed to hurry. His objective was to be met soon should the Organization's plans succeed.

Little did he know that _another_ hooded figure was watching his every movement.

* * *

Danny was up long before Sora even budged. The keyblade master had developed a strange fondness for sleeping in, the halfa had noticed, and it took him several minutes to finally wake the spiky-haired keyblade master. Luckily, they woke up in time to bid the adults farewell as they headed to the Sunday Clearance ("As predicted!" Danny said, grinning) before they greeted Sam and Tucker and headed up to Danny's room.

"So, how exactly are we going to do this?" Tucker asked.

"Our computers are all connected by a network," Danny explained. "I'll go in through mine and keep you up to date here so when my parents get home they won't get mad at you. They're not being overshadowed, but Mom can get pretty scary when she's mad."

"What if they come home too early?" Sam asked. "We can't exactly tell them their son's been sucked into his computer and is now hacking their data from inside."

Danny shrugged. "Just tell them you saw a ghost somewhere."

"Will that really work?" Sora asked.

"It _always_ works," Danny replied, starting up his computer. Once it was turned on, he put on a set of Fenton Phones and tossed another to Sora. "Ready to go, Sora?"

"Ready," Sora replied, putting on the headset. "Let's go."

Danny nodded, swiftly transforming into a ghost and grabbing Sora's arm. He went intangible and dove into the computer, taking Sora with him.

* * *

Another hooded figure sat on top of Fentonworks, holding a small communicator to his ear. "I don't like this. I've never seen the Organization do this before. They must be planning something big."

"_We're not entirely sure that it's the Organization doing this. They could be imposters like last time, or they could be under someone else's manipulation."_

"You have a point there."

"_Have you found out anything else?"_

"Yeah," the figure replied, casting a glance down the street toward the mayor's house. "The guy we're looking at is already aware that the mayor is a half-ghost, just like Phantom is. The main difference is he's been half-ghost longer, and he's not exactly working for the good side."

"_I was afraid of that. Does the current mayor know the truth concerning the matter with the heartless?"_

The figure shook his head, even though his contact wouldn't see it. "Not yet. The one the Organization sent still has him in the dark about that, but he's starting to get suspicious. The commission has already reached the Fentons, but Phantom's doing a good job delaying it."

"_At least that's a relief. What do you make of that Nobody reappearing, though? I think it's a little fishy to have another member of Organization XIII showing up after we've beaten them all."_

The cloaked figure narrowed his eyes and stood, preparing to leave. "I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think it has something to do with Ansem's computer…"

* * *

Sora felt like he had been thrown into Ansem's computer all over again. He looked the same way he did when he was fighting alongside Tron, which consequently was the same way he looked when he played Doomed. Danny looked similar to his own Doomed avatar, and seemed comfortable in his own right. The area around them didn't look like the Doomed game, but more like Space Paranoids did. They were, specifically, in what was probably the I/O tower.

"What now?" Danny asked.

"It's your computer," Sora said, shrugging. "And your idea, too. We're supposed to get into your Dad's computer in the lab, right?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah. All we need to do is…" He paused. "Er… Actually, I have no clue how we're going to be doing this. When I overshadowed my computer last time, I was playing doomed, not hacking."

Sora grinned, holding a hand up on his Fenton Phones. "Can you guys hear me?"

"_Loud and clear. You two make it in okay?"_

"We're fine," Danny said.

"Everyone," Sora began, "I've done this before, but I'm going to need some help if we're going to pull this off. Tucker, open up the network for us."

"_Got it."_

Nodding, Sora turned to Danny. "Follow me. I know how we can get into your dad's computer."

"How?" Danny asked. "This isn't as easy as walking down the street."

Sora chuckled. "Actually, it is. Come on."

The halfa followed Sora as he stepped onto the I/O tower and looked upward. The keyblade master grabbed Danny's arm as they were pulled upward into a swirling vortex. Sora had never been past the I/O tower before in Space Paranoids, but after his time there he quite literally knew how computers worked – inside _and_ out.

"How do you know about all this?" Danny asked.

"Like I said yesterday," Sora replied, "I've been in a computer before. I know how they work."

Danny looked doubtful, but played along anyway. When the vortex finally slowed down, they found themselves in a significantly darker area. Once Sora and Danny touched down, they began walking out.

"So this is your parents' computer," Sora said. "Cheery."

"They _are_ ghost hunters," Danny said, shaking his head. "So, where should we go for the data?"

"The database," Sora replied casually, holding his hand up to his Fenton Phones again. "Okay, guys. We're in."

"_Great job, guys. Everything's still clear on this side."_

"Perfect," Danny said, grinning. "We're not going to need a password until we get into the database. Until then, make sure the coast is clear, okay?"

"_It'll be a sinch, Danny. Tucker and I already have a story cooked up that there's a ghost haunting the grocery store and we're here to hide from it."_

Danny rolled his eyes. "Works, I guess. Come on, Sora. Where's the database?"

Sora peered around a bit. "It should be nearby. In the computer I went into before it wasn't far from the I/O tower."

"Were there heartless in the computer?"

"Um…no offense Danny, but what kind of question is that?"

"Let me rephrase that…were _those_ heartless in the computer?"

Blinking at Danny's question as it sank in; Sora immediately spotted a small crowd of Strafers. Summoning the keyblade, he took a battle-ready stance. "Looks like we'll have to get rid of these before we can move on. Ready to kick some butt?"

Danny didn't answer verbally. His hands glowed with a green ectoplasmic energy and he floated forth. "Any tips, Sora?"

"I haven't had to deal with these much," Sora replied. "They're not very strong, but they like to use lasers and in a swarm they'll kick your butt."

"Lasers?" Danny echoed doubtfully.

As if to answer, a few of the creatures fired a few rounds of electricity at the two. With a quick flick of his wrist, Sora let loose a volley of Reflect spells as he drew in, the shield absorbing the blast before sending it back at the Strafers. He batted away a few more with the keyblade while Danny disposed of some more with a few rounds of ectoplasmic energy and a few others by hurling a blue beam at them. Sora was about to ask if he could change the color of his attacks when he saw that the heartless hit by the attacks became encased in an enormous block of ice, which Danny then shattered with a well-timed kick.

The final remaining Strafer fell victim to Sora's keyblade before the two headed forward again. "Stupid small fry," Sora grumbled. "Someone else must have hacked into your parents' computer before we got here."

"How can you tell?" Danny asked.

Sora shook his head as they stepped onto a floating white platform. "The first computer I went into was sabatoged by the user's apprentice. He corrupted the data in it and implanted heartless. I'm not sure why he'd want to do that – or _how_ he did it – but he did."

The white platform moved forward, and Danny nearly fell off as it started to proceed. After a short while, the platform halted at another area that looked quite similar to the canyon that Sora had dealt with in Ansem's computer, but it was still much darker, like the rest of the computer had been. He entered a nearby door, walking into a slightly brighter area. "Okay, Tucker, we're in the database. Everything okay up there?"

"_Just fine. Sam had to answer the phone a few minutes ago. It looks like your parents had a few traffic problems on their way to the store. We've been given another hour or so."_

"Great," Danny replied. "Okay, lets get into the database."

Sora nodded, walking forward and typing on the database keyboard. "Looks like there's no password," he said.

"_What gives? I was ready to spend ages helping you guys decode it."_

"I don't know," Danny said, crossing his arms. "Something seems kind of fishy about this."

Sora hit a few more keys and the screens lit up with various data. There was a lot on Danny – skeletal structure, infrared scans, and other things – as well as a few lists of genetic data. Several poorly-taken photos of Danny were also in the database (there was also a folder called "Maddie" that Sora decided to avoid) that were apparently taken at high speeds, as well as what appeared to be a female version of Danny. Flipping through further past a mess of government documents, Sora also found a few messages that appeared to be private. He was about to flip away when Danny stopped him. "Wait a sec. Let me read that."

_Mayor Masters,_

_In response to your questions, we are proud to tell you the assistance we can offer is nothing short of perfection. We are aware of your tribulations and we vow to do our best to aid you in ridding your town of all ghosts that threaten it – including the notorious ghost boy, Danny Phantom._

_Please contact us with the address given, and should you accept our proposal then we will send one of our finest assistants to your mansion immediately. We eagerly await your reply._

_-Oblivion Ghost Hunters_

Danny's eyes widened. "Sora, this isn't my _parents'_ computer…it's _Vlad's_!"

* * *

So! Next chapter soon! I hope this one was okay, I'm a tad rusty...


	15. Enemies and Allies

This chapter may be a bit sloppy...but stuff is revealed! So...yeah...

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Fifteen: Enemies and Allies**

* * *

Danny could hardly believe what he was seeing. Rather than hacking into his parents' lab computer, he and Sora had ended up in Vlad's. Had it been Sora's mistake? _Even if it is, I bet we'll get something for being in here._

"_You two okay in there? Sam had to go answer the phone, but she'll be right back."_

"We're fine," Sora replied. "But I think we're in Vlad's computer, not the Fentons'."

"Did you take a wrong turn, Sora?"

Sora shook his head. "No. This was the only route open. The only other one was closed off."

"_Vlad probably networked his PC to your parents', Danny."_

"I wouldn't put that past him," Danny grumbled. "Sora, can you send that letter you found to Tucker?"

"On it," Sora said, typing at a few keys. "Did you get that, Tucker?"

"_Yeah. Looks like Vlad's been hiring a ghost hunter, but I get the feeling these aren't good guys."_

"They're not," Sora replied darkly.

Danny glanced upward. "Do a search on Oblivion Ghost Hunters, Tuck. Is there anything?"

There was a brief silence before Tucker responded. _"Nothing at all."_

"I knew it!" Sora cried. "These guys _are_ Organization XIII!"

"_Organization XIII? Isn't that the group you said were bringing the heartless to Amity Park?"_

"Yeah," Sora replied. "About a year ago they lured me into a place called Castle Oblivion. They must be posing as ghost hunters to get in on him or something. I've got a feeling they're only interested in getting rid of you, though, Danny."

"Figures," Danny grumbled. He was used to being a target for malice, but that didn't make it any easier to cope with. It just made it easier to expect.

"What gets me is that I thought I wiped them out," Sora continued. "They must have at least one of their officers back. Whichever one it is, he knows about Danny, and I'm pretty sure he's the one that sent in the commission, or at least suggested it. But why are they after Danny in particular?"

Danny shrugged. "People tend to target me for a lot of stuff, so whatever reason they've got, I won't be surprised what it is." He turned away. "At any rate, I'm pretty sure we found the commander that Clockwork mentioned. The only other two ghosts I can think up of that have 'incredible power' are both locked up and they're not coming back any time soon."

"_We shouldn't rule it out, just to be safe."_

"I know," Danny replied. "I've got a strong hunch that the one commanding the heartless is Vlad, though. It just kind of fits."

Sora crossed his arms in contemplation. "What are these other two ghosts, Danny?"

Danny sighed. _Even Sora's having his doubts? Yeesh._ "One of them is my evil self from an alternate timeline, but Clockwork's keeping an eye on him so he's not going anywhere. The other one is the king of all ghosts, Pariah Dark. He's sealed up in a sarcophagus deep in the Ghost Zone. No ghost in their right mind would let either of them out, not even Vlad."

"The Organization might," Sora pointed out. "But if they're sealed up tight like you say, then I agree; it's got to be Vlad."

"If we take him down, will the heartless stop coming?" Danny asked.

Sora shook his head. "No. Only if I seal the keyhole. I'm not sure where it is, so we just have to stall the heartless until I find it."

"_Hey guys, I'm back. Did I miss anything?"_

"We found out that Organization XIII has been buddying up with Vlad," Danny said. "And that Vlad's the one controlling the heartless."

"_Why am I not surprised?"_

Danny sighed. "None of us are," he said. "But now we also know that Vlad networked himself to our computers, because we ended up in his and not my parents'."

"_So, no data on the commission?"_

"Nothing," Sora said, sighing, "But what we found is a lot more important. We should probably get out of here before anything bad happens."

"_Got it."_

"Back to the I/O tower?" Danny asked.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. I think we'll have to try getting into your parents' comptuer again some other time."

"Fine by me," Danny replied. Hacking into Vlad's computer – even on accident – was enough for one day.

The two headed back to the I/O tower, travelling down the network and back to Danny's computer. Upon arrival, the halfa had to cover his eyes for a moment; his computer was a bit brighter on the inside compared to Vlad's. Sora put both hands behind his head. "Ready to leave?" He asked.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. Come on, I'll get us out."

* * *

Vlad Masters narrowed his eyes. "You are trying my patience, sir. Do you or do you not have a way to cleanse Amity Park of the ghosts that threaten it?"

The hooded figure flinched slightly, but remained calm otherwise. "Quite, Mayor Masters. The dark creatures we have deployed are currently targeting the ghost boy and his accomplices while a smaller division of them seeks out the other ghosts. The largest threats must leave first before we can move on to the rest."

"I see," Vlad replied, leaning back in his chair. "Very well, then; but could you speed it up? If anyone in town finds that I'm behind those _creatures_ attacking the citizens, I'll be impeached for sure."

"We have everything under control, sir," the hooded figure replied, bowing. "By your leave." As he exited, however, his eyes narrowed angrily. _That fool. I've about lost my patience with him._

Once the hooded closed the door to the guest bedroom he was staying in, he sat down calmly on the bed and snapped his fingers. There was a whirl of darkness and another hooded man appeared. "You called?"

"Good to see you again, Lexaeus. I trust you haven't forgotten out little plan?"

Lexaeus shook his head. "Not at all. The heartless have been searching vehemently for the keyhole, but it seems that it is very well-guarded. No sign of it has appeared thus far."

"And now we have the keyblade master searching for it as well," the hooded figure replied. "Do me a favor, then. Eliminate the keyblade master…and the ghost boy as well, if you can manage. Without them, finding the keyhole will be easy to accomplish, as there will be little to no hindrances."

"Very well," Lexaeus replied calmly. "I will go immediately." With a black whirl of darkness, he was gone.

* * *

Sora opened his eyes carefully once Danny had pulled him out of the computer. It was a lot less comfortable than how he entered and left Ansem's computer, but if it worked, he didn't complain. Once his eyes adjusted, he found Tucker and Sam sitting on the bed waiting for them. "Welcome back from the land of technology," Sam said dryly. "Next time, take Tucker with you."

Tucker began to protest while Sora glanced around the room. "Er…has anyone seen Stitch?"

"The blue furry guy?" Tucker asked. "Yeah. He headed downstairs in a hurry just a few minutes ago. Why?"

On cue, the alien skidded to a stop in Danny's doorway. Sora cocked an eyebrow. "Stitch? What's wrong?"

"Jiuwaji wajia!"

"Translation please?" Danny asked.

"He probably wants us to follow him," Sora replied, not knowing entirely what Stitch said but rather going off of the creature's gestures.

Stitch nodded vigorously and raced down the stairs. The keyblade master followed, and Danny wasn't far behind. Sam and Tucker also followed. Stitch finally came to a stop in the lab, pointing and jumping up and down at something Sora recognized.

It stood only slightly shorter than Sora himself. The body consisted of what could have been a white robe, and a clear heartless emblem was imprinted on its front. It donned a red turban-like object on its head, which was entirely black with the same foreboding yellow eyes as any other heartless. The main difference, however, was that it didn't seem interested in harming anyone, and only stood waiting.

"Heartless!" Danny cried, shifting to ghost form. His hands began to glow a foreboding green.

"No!" Sora cried, standing in the line of fire and causing Danny to hesitate. "This one is harmless!"

The other three teenagers stared at Sora in disbelief while Stitch sat down on the floor quietly. Sam blinked. "What do you mean, it's harmless?" she exclaimed. "It's a heartless!"

"That's about the same as saying all ghosts are evil," Sora intoned, ignoring his friends' reaction. "Most heartless are pretty mean, but some are nice." He turned to the figure in front of him and tilted his head. "We call these guys White Mushrooms. I haven't seen one since my first visit to Hollow Bastion."

"How long ago was that?" Tucker asked.

"Two years," Sora replied, returning his attention to the mushroom. "Hi, there, little guy."

The mushroom seemed to smile back at him and waved. Sora held a hand forward and shook with the mushroom. "Nice to meet you, too. Why're you here?"

In response, the mushroom made a few strange gestures toward the ghost portal, upstairs, and Danny. Sora was about to ask what he meant when something clicked in the back of his mind. Somewhere, somewhere _deep_ in his conscience, Sora felt a message being relayed to him and only to him – a message very similar to the dream he had had before the islands were destroyed by heartless. His eyes widening, he nearly took a step back. "You're…here to help?"

When the White Mushroom jumped up and down happily, the three teens behind Sora (as well as Stitch) let out a quiet gasp. "Sora, you can _talk_ to the heartless?!" Sam asked quietly.

Sora shook his head. Even he hadn't been expecting this. "No, I can't. At least, I don't think I can. The words just kind of popped into my head from nowhere."

"Maybe that's how they talk," Danny suggested. The mushroom jumped a few times, agreeing.

Deciding to agree for now, Sora returned to the mushroom. "So, what are you here to help with?"

Again, the mushroom made gestures to various things in the room. Watching and listening intently, Sora returned his gaze to the group. "He says…or, he's telling me, whichever…that there's someone in Amity Park that knows about us, and he's helping from the sidelines."

"Who do you suppose it is?" Tucker asked.

"Beats me," Danny said, shrugging. "The only ones that know about me being half-ghost are us, my sister, and Vlad. Unless you care to count all the _ghosts_ that know."

Sora shook his head. "I don't think it's a ghost. Is it human?"

The mushroom nodded.

Sora was about to ask another question when a loud _bang_ resounded from upstairs. Startled, the mushroom warped away in fear. Partially frustrated and partially actimg on instinct, Sora charged up the stairs and out the door to see a crowd of white creatures approaching. _Just what we needed,_ he grumbled, summoning the keyblade.

"What are those things?" Sam asked.

"They're called Nobodies," Sora replied. "Specifically Dusks. You and Tucker get inside the house _now_. These things are far from friendly."

The two teens headed in and closed the door firmly behind them. Danny narrowed his eyes and prepared to blast the enemies away as Sora lunged forward with the keyblade. A few slashes easily dispatched a number of Dusks, while a barrage of ectoblasts from Danny, who flew above, demolished even more. Sora was about to hit a few more when a sudden blast from right beneath him sent him flying into the air. Crying out in shock, he landed lightly on his feet just in time to see the arms of an assassin nobody heading his way. There were nobodies all around, and no time to put up a proper defense. The arms were just about to strike when Danny swept Sora out of the way.

At least, he _thought_ it had been Danny.

As Sora watched, Danny Phantom fired several ectoblasts at the Dusks in order to stop their progression. Sora, however, was dumbstruck. He couldn't strain his head well enough to see who had flown him out of harm's way (but it was rather uncomfortable; he was hanging by one arm), and instead asked his question without aim. "What's going on?"

He was quickly placed on the ground by someone whom looked nearly exactly like Danny, only with a few major differences: this ghost was about two feet shorter…and this ghost was also a _girl_. She smirked in reply to his inquiry. "You wanna ask questions, or you wanna kick some butt?"

* * *

Well, there's chapter 15. Chapter 16 soon!


	16. Reunions

This chapter is short, but I had to get it out before I go on a break; won't be back for a few days...ish. I hope you like it.

By the way, POLL ON MY USERPAGE! VOTE PLZ! :D

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Sixteen: Reunions**

* * *

The cloaked figure stood atop Fenton Works, one arm dangling at his side and holding a small communicator to his ear. "Looks like there are Nobodies here, too. Probably the Organization."

"Not again," the voice on the other end replied, sighing. "Does Sora have it handled?"

The figure nodded. "Yeah. The ghost boy is helping him again. You were right; he's trustworthy. What worries me now is that some of _them_ are here, and now it's been confirmed."

"How many can you make out?"

Pausing, the glowing figure glanced about, eyes wary. "I sense two of them. We'll be lucky if a third one doesn't show up. One of them is the Silent Hero."

"Lexaeus, right?" The voice confirmed. "You've dealt with him before. Can't you help Sora out?"

The figure shook his head. "Not directly. He's not stepping in, so I won't…at least, not yet."

* * *

Sora was swatting dusks left and right with such focus he barely had enough attention to spare a glance at the newcomer. Thankfully, he didn't need to – she fought quite well on her own, and in a much similar fashion that Danny did, with many of the same techniques and abilities. Multiple times he nearly had a Dusk catch him from behind, only to have a well-timed ectoplasmic beam wipe it out before it could do so much as twitch in his direction, courtesy of Phantom. While the girl decided to send some more projectiles into the fray, Danny froze most of the dusks solid.

There was only a small crowd left when another warrior leapt into the fray: a dark-haired woman wearing a long black dress and matching gloves. The young lady sent a vicious kick at one of the dusks, courtesy of her boots, and gave the other remaining ones a pretty good idea of what a knuckle sandwich tasted like. Once the crowd was clear, the woman wiped off her brow. "Cid wasn't far off, was he?"

There was a succinct silence before Sora found his voice again. "Tifa!" he cried. "I haven't seen you in ages! What're you doing here?"

Tifa smiled, putting one hand on her hip. "Dropping off Danielle," she replied, casting a short glance to the female ghost, whom was in an avid conversation with Danny. "She healed up pretty fast, but what she mostly needed was some rest."

Sora followed her gaze, noticing that Danny was indeed familiar with the girl, and that both were happy to see each other. Smiling, he crossed his arms. "How'd she get to Radiant Garden, anyway?"

"Beats me," Tifa replied. "Merlin isn't sure, but he says she must have passed through one of those dark portals that the Organization used to use." She paused, and her eyes lit up. "Oh! Speaking of the Organization, the Gullwings came to us the other day and mentioned something being wrong with Ansem's computer."

"MCP?" Sora asked, disheartened.

Tifa shook her head. "Not really. They just said it's been acting strange. Yuna said something about the Cavern of Remembrance, but none of them really could tell me much. They seemed confused in their own right."

Sora crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "The Cavern of Remembrance," he echoed. He had been there once before. There were hordes of heartless and nobodies inside, as well as some very strange architecture, and at the very end was a strange computer that had some information on Organization XIII. Having learned respect for technology after the bout in Space Paranoids and wiping out the MCP, Sora didn't tinker with the device much, but he _had_ been rather confused when thirteen large panels appeared around him – he had counted out of curiosity – and glowed with an eerie blue light. Donald and Goofy had insisted that they leave before they caused any more trouble, so Sora was forced to leave before he could do or figure out anything else. Perhaps the computer that the Gullwings had referred to was that one…

"…and there was this _really_ weird guy with a blue hat on, he had the _coolest_ books I've ever read, and there was this _huge_ castle and one of the guys there had an _awesome_ sword that shot fireballs, and…"

Sora was snapped out of his thoughts when he overheard Danielle speaking about Hollow Bastion and quirked an eyebrow. Tifa chuckled when she noticed his expression. "She got the grand tour of the whole city, castle included. There wasn't a single moment where her eyes weren't wide open, especially when she accidentally jumped into Ansem's computer."

"Did she make it out okay?"

Tifa shrugged. "Obviously she did. Tron sent us an email later telling us that he'd taken care of it. He's been busy lately keeping the system running and all, but he says he misses you."

"I'll be fine," Sora replied, "But I kind of miss him, too. Everything okay at HQ?"

"The usual," Tifa replied. "We're getting some more readings, but nothing too serious yet. The king dispatched Donald and Goofy to one of the worlds to make sure someone was handling the situation, and it looks okay, so they're on their way back. The king himself has been kind of busy, too, but he keeps in touch."

Sora sighed in relief. "That's good."

Tifa glanced at the sky. "Anyway, I need to get going. Cid found a place nearby here that he wants me to investigate, and I'd rather not get on his bad side. Make sure you find the keyhole quick, okay?"

"I will," Sora replied. "I promise."

"Of course," Tifa replied, glancing back at Danielle. "I have to get going now, Danni. Behave yourself!"

Danielle smiled and waved. "Don't worry, Miss Lockhart. I will!"

With that, Tifa left, striding down the street at a quick pace. Once she was out of earshot, Danny turned to Sora. "That another friend of yours?" he asked.

"Sort of," Sora replied. "I've never really talked to her much. She was always looking for someone, so she never had much time."

"Did she ever find him?" Danny asked.

Sora nodded. "Yeah, but he left before she could say much. About a month later he came back, and both of them help out with the HBRC now."

Danny crossed his arms. "Sounds like you have plenty of people helping," he noted. "But why so many? I don't mean to be thoughtless or anything, but are the heartless that big of a deal? They're monsters, but other than threatening lives, what are they?"

Stiffening, Sora turned and began to walk away. "They threaten more than just lives, Danny," he replied, "And they'll take away from you a lot more than you know."

* * *

"You are trying my patience, Mayor," the cloaked man said, crossing his arms. "You said the Fentons were geniuses, albeit clumsy ones. Is their clumsiness so terrible they'd take _this long _to complete the request?"

Vlad Masters rolled his eyes. "If we could get the ghost boy out of the way, it wouldn't take so long. Why would you request such a thing, anyway? Aren't you ghost hunters?"

The cloaked man sighed. "Yes, sir. We are. Even so, this device is crucial to getting rid of Phantom for you. We realize that the other ghosts in the area are hunting him down just as you want to be rid of him as well. You see where I'm going with this?"

The mayor rubbed his chin momentarily and grinned. "Ah, yes, a _splendid_ idea. Turn his enemies against him while they're empowered, and then capture those enemies. But if you're making your opponent stronger, what good does that do you? Is this some sort of experiment?"

"Yes," came the reply. "And in this experiment, we will see how a ghost can survive if it has _too much_ power. I personally have seen what happens on a similar occasion, and the empowered subject _never _lasts long."

Vlad quirked a suspicious eyebrow. "And you know this _how_?"

"I am a scientist myself, sir," the cloaked man replied, pulling down his hood to reveal emerald-green eyes and lengthy blonde hair. "Experimentation is what I do."

* * *

Happy Holidays, everyone, whichever one you celebrate!


	17. Side One: Split

Remember to vote in my poll if you haven't already!

Well, the story is nearing completion, sort of. This chapter is rather awkward, and somewhat short. Again.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Seventeen: Side One: Split**

* * *

"It's been a while, Lexaeus."

The normally quiet man glared at the cloaked figure. He had been heading back to the mayor's mansion when the stranger blocked his path. Anyone willing to utilize a corridor of darkness in public was an imbecile, though thankfully no one was around to witness it. "Didn't I already deal with you?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow just barely.

"Maybe you did," the stranger replied, crossing his arms. "Though, if I _remember_ correctly, it was _I_ who dealt with_ you_." He chuckled. "Then again, you're not _really_ Lexaeus, are you?"

Lexaeus narrowed his eyes. This person seemed strongly familiar somehow. "That's enough. What are you here for?"

The stranger shrugged. "I could ask you the very same thing. I know you're working with Vexen, and I know what your _real_ aim is. Just so you know, I was sent by his majesty to put a stop to all of this before it gets out of hand. He's the one that filled me in and all."

"You are quite well informed," Lexaeus replied calmly. "The king is absurdly knowledgeable. Since you have him on your side, I must assume you already know that our aim has absolutely nothing to do with the ghost boy. His Nobody would be powerful indeed, but I know of one of his opponents that he has not truly defeated…at least, not with his _own_ power. That entity would have a _powerful_ Nobody indeed, and that Nobody would be a _great_ asset to the Organization."

"What Organization?" The stranger asked. "You've been wiped out entirely by one of your own."

"We will rebuild," Lexaeus scoffed, "Starting with Roxas."

The stranger laughed. "You think you can take on a keyblade master? Last time I checked, you couldn't even finish _me_ off."

"Then let's finish this," Lexaeus grumbled, brandishing his tomahawk.

The cloaked stranger grinned, summoning a darkened blade and taking a battle stance. "Ladies first."

Enraged, Lexaeus charged.

* * *

Sora stared at the laboratory wall intently, but Danny didn't let that deter him from his task. He eyed the Fenton Ghost Catcher warily and placed it near a cabinet and far away from himself before returning to the task at hand. "Come on, Sora. You can tell me. Danielle is busy upstairs making sure no one bothers us. I won't spill the beans, I promise."

"I can't," Sora replied, not bothering to turn around. "I don't want to put this world in danger by breaking more rules."

Danny groaned in exasperation. Ever since he had made the comment about the heartless a few minutes earlier, Sora had been stiff and unsociable for no clear reason. It had taken him ages to drag the boy to the lab in order to convince him that they were in total and utter privacy, and no one would bother them. Of course, this didn't prevent Sora from ignoring him fervently, but Danny persevered. "Look, Sora. I know I struck a nerve when I asked about the heartless, and I'm sorry. That's no reason for you to refuse to tell me more, though. If they're as big a threat as you're making them out to be, then tell me so I know what I'm getting into."

Something must have clicked, because Sora looked at the ground and his stiff stance lessened. "You want to hear it?" When Danny nodded, Sora sat down and crossed his legs Indian-style. "Well, for starters, I'm not from this world. You probably figured that out by now."

"Not exactly," Danny replied, eyes a bit wide, "But I had a feeling it was something like that." _He's from another _world_? Cool! I'll have to ask him more about it…_

Sora smiled. "Two years ago, I was living a pretty normal life on Destiny Islands with my friends Riku and Kairi. Kairi was from a different world, and she didn't really remember much about it because she ended up on Destiny Islands when we were little. Once we were all teenagers, Riku got a bit curious about things and we decided to build a raft to go see other worlds."

"A raft?" Danny echoed, skeptical. "Wouldn't that get you as far as the middle of the ocean?"

"I know," Sora replied, laughing. "We were all pretty stupid then. The thing is, Riku had suspected about Kairi being from another world for a while. He basically broke the rules without even knowing about them, and before we knew it, we believed it too. Right when the raft was finished, something happened, and this weird storm came, only it wasn't a storm like I thought it had been…"

Danny could see Sora's eyes suddenly lower to the floor. He knew the keyblade master was holding back tears. "The heartless came, didn't they?" he said, careful not to sound unkind.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. That was when I first got the keyblade, and the heartless started attacking me a lot more than they had five minutes before that. I managed to find my friends in time, but when I did they went away fast, and my home with them. I woke up in a world called Traverse Town, where most people go when their home is destroyed. That's when I met Cid, and from there I've been to a lot of different worlds, sealing keyholes and fighting heartless. My friends wound up being okay, and my home is back, too. Now I'm just called up whenever the Restoration Committee needs something, like Amity Park for instance."

"So the heartless can destroy entire worlds," Danny said. "That's insane."

"And it's true," Sora added. "They can, and they _will_ if someone doesn't stop them. If I seal the keyhole, they won't be able to reach that world's heart. Worlds have hearts just like people do. If a person has their heart taken, or if they fall to darkness, they become a heartless. When a world has its heart taken, it's destroyed. That's why it's so important that I seal the keyhole, but I can't break any rules, either."

"Do you have any idea where the keyhole might be?" Danny asked.

Sora shook his head. "Not a clue. Usually it's somewhere important, and I know it's there when I get close to it. The sooner we find it, the better…I'd rather not have to go through restoring this place if it gets blown up. Not only is it hard work physically, but there's a lot of emotional and mental strain involved, even if I'm restoring worlds I've never visited."

Danny tilted his head. "Why's that?"

"It's hard to explain," Sora replied, shivering. "About two years ago near the start of this whole mess, I had to go through a really weird void where the remnants of all destroyed worlds end up. That place was basically a giant heartless world, I guess, so we called it End of the World. I had to fight my way through, and to be honest, it was a lot harder on my mind than my sword arm. Every time I swung the keyblade and got rid of a heartless, something in me just got heavier, and at one point I nearly passed out from the mental strain. I think I was feeling the pain of all the worlds that were destroyed and waiting to be restored. I still don't know why. I'll do it if I have to, but I'd rather not go through that. Ever." He looked away, his face paling. "The only thing that really kept me going was the thought of ever seeing my home again."

The halfa bit his lip. _No wonder he doesn't want to talk about it. Going through something like that has to be absolute torture. I really wonder how he stays cheerful after having to survive that._

Sora stood, brushing off his pants, possibly from lack of anything else to occupy his hands. "That's why I have to get this world sealed up as soon as I can. Sealing it up may be hard to do, but restoring it is a lot harder, and there's no guarantee that I can actually restore it to the way it was, either. If you have anything that can help me, Danny, please tell me."

_He's so serious…it's like he's a different person._ "I'll do everything I can," Danny replied. "I promise."

"Danny!"

The two boys snapped out of their conversation and looked toward the door. Danielle flew through it and halted before them. "It's your parents! They're coming! I'll hold them off as long as possible, but you've gatta get out of here!"

Danny nodded, and Danielle flew back upstairs. "Head for the ghost zone!" he commanded. He and Sora made a mad scramble for the portal, but found it closed. Danny made for the control panel to the side and tapped frantically at it, hoping to find the right password to open it up. Nothing he came up with worked. "Come on, come on! Open up!"

"Can't we go through it intangibly or something?" Sora asked, pulling at one of the doors.

"Doesn't work like that," Danny said quickly. "Open! _Open!_"

Sora pulled tightly on the door, but his fingers slipped from the handle and he stumbled backward into a tall filing cabinet. It wobbled dangerously and began to fall over, but Sora, his reflexes honed by years of battling heartless, leapt backward and out of the way of harm…

…right through the Fenton Ghost Catcher.

As Danny watched, Sora exited out the other side thankfully unharmed, but with one major difference. Next to him, on the ground, was a familiar boy with blonde hair, a white jacket, and the same blue eyes as Sora. Both boys grunted in confusion, pushing themselves up off the floor, still in a daze. Danny stared wide-eyed as the two made their way onto their feet. "Well…this is new."

There, right next to Sora, was Roxas.

* * *

What a fascinating turn of events. I think. Chapter 18 soon!


	18. True Intentions

Concerning my poll, please look at it even if you've already voted…as you'll notice, one of the choices has been taken down because that story has been started.

I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, peoples! T.T I've been caught up in my other fics, working on my novel, and other things. Anywho, this is a quickie for you all. I hope it's good.

HOLY CRAP 100 REVIEWS! NOWAI. You guys rock.

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Eighteen: True Intentions **

* * *

Sora stared in astonishment when he finally regained his composure. There, standing right next to him, was none other than Roxas. His eyes darted between his Nobody and the Fenton Ghost Catcher several times before the connection was made. "How-"

"Come on, Jack. We need to work on the commission!"

_As if things couldn't get any worse,_ Sora lamented, watching in horror as their shadows appeared on the stairway wall. "Danny, quick! Do something!"

Danny made a mad dash for Sora and Roxas and was about to drag them down when a voice called from upstairs. "Mom! Dad! Can you come help me with something?"

There was a pause before the two parents answered and Sora heard them going upstairs again. Danny blinked. "That can't be right," he said. "Why am I hearing my own voice come up upstairs?"

Danielle flew in from the roof and gasped for breath. "Man, that was a close one…" She looked up and did a double take. "Danny? But I thought I saw you upstairs?"

"I wasn't upstairs," Danny replied, blinking. "What's going on?"

Nearby, Roxas was rubbing his head. "I'd like to ask the same question."

Sora didn't know what to be concerned about first. His head was spinning: Danny was in his room, but in truth he was actually right next to him. Somehow, Roxas had appeared before them, and he didn't know how. He still had to find the keyhole, there was still the threat of the heartless, and… "Can we please get somewhere where I can sort this out without worrying about a headache?"

Danny winced. "Sorry…I think we can sneak out. As long as…well, whoever's in my room…is distracting Mom and Dad, we should be able to get out of here unnoticed." He held his hand out. "Take my hand and follow me. I can make us all invisible long enough to get out of here and somewhere safer."

Sora hesitantly reached out and did so. Roxas followed, and Danny led them toward the door, his form shimmering slightly as he faded. Sora felt a tingling spread from his fingertips all the way down his body, but he was still able to make out Danny well enough to follow him out of the lab and up the stairs. Roxas followed cautiously behind.

* * *

Lexaeus grit his teeth. "You are indeed powerful, but you cannot stop the Organization's plans for Amity Park."

The cloaked figure scoffed. "The Organization no longer exists. Only malfunctioning copies of their members, composed entirely of data. You're lower than non-existence; you're fake."

"Perhaps you are correct," Lexaues wheezed, "But do not think you can stop us. By now, Vexen is already putting our plans into motion. You have no power to stop them…"

Upon those last words, Lexaeus vanished into a burst of darkness. The cloaked figure clutched his sword tightly before reaching for his ear. "It's me. Lexaeus is down."

"Good goin'. Do you know anything about what they're planning?"

"Only that we're about to find out firsthand," the cloaked figure replied, teeth clenched. "I don't think I want to stick around for that, but it's best to prevent it. I'm going to go find Sora and the ghost boy."

"They should be at Fentonworks. Don't worry; I'm sure they're safe."

The cloaked figure nodded again. "Right. If anything goes wrong, I'll let you know, your majesty."

"Be careful."

* * *

Danny, Sora and Roxas were heading up the staircase at the same pace as before when they had to press their backs to the wall to let Jack and Maddie pass by and go downstairs again. Once the way was clear, Danny let them go and shifted back into his human form. "That was too close."

"Are we free to collapse in relief yet?" Sora asked.

"Once we get in my room, you will be," Danny replied, motioning them upstairs. They climbed the remainder of the ascent and entered Danny's room, where they found – just as Danielle had told them – Danny, sitting casually on the bed. Danny blinked. "Er, is there something I'm missing?"

The other Danny rolled his eyes and replied in a highly nasal voice. "Of course not, Phantom. You're just lucky I got here before you were caught in your parents' laboratory downstairs." As they watched, the other Danny shifted into another appearance: one of a person wearing a tuxedo and top hat, with red glasses and no face whatsoever.

Danny blinked. "Morpho? What're you doing here?"

"Handing over a message," the ghost replied.

"Hold the phone," Roxas began. "Who's this guy?"

"Morpho," Danny explained. "He's a ghost that can take the appearance of just about anything and anyone.

Roxas crossed his arms in doubt. "Really?"

In response, Morpho's image once again shifted into that of Roxas, with an uncharacteristic smirk on his face. "Indeed I can, boy."

"Huh. I rest my case, then."

Morpho didn't bother returning to his original form and turned to Danny. "Skulker told me about your situation and sent me with a message. Technus has been infiltrating computers all over Amity Park to gather any useful information. The only places he's managed to get anything useful are your parents' laboratory computers and Vlad Masters."

"So that's why we couldn't get in earlier," Sora mused aloud, scratching his neck absently. "Technus must have done something to block us out…whoever he is."

"But he also went to Vlad Masters," Danny pointed out. "Morpho, did he get anything useful?"

"Other than the fact that your parents' invention is on the verge of completion," Morpho began, "We know that a man named Vexen has been working with Masters."

Roxas's eyes widened. "_That_ creep is working for Vlad?!"

"You know him?" Morpho inquired.

"Long story," Roxas replied warily, apparently still startled that Morpho had taken on his appearance. Danny knew how he flet; it was like looking in a mirror that had taken on a life of its own. "What else did you find?"

Morpho crossed his arms. "There is another of those cloaked men wandering about…this one keeps his hood up. He was last seen fighting against a man named Lexaeus, and defeating him. Technus wanted to let you know that if he finds any big news, he'll report directly to you."

Danny blinked. "Why me?"

"Clockwork specifically gave him that order," Morpho explained. "He said that someone known as the Keyblade Master was with you, Danny, and that he is very important when it comes to getting rid of those monsters wreaking havoc on the ghost zone."

Sora looked away.

"I have some other business to attend to around town, now," Morpho said. "Don't worry, Danny, I'm not going to be causing trouble today." And before the ghost boy could protest, he vanished outside the window.

Roxas rubbed his head. "Would someone care to tell me what's going on?"

Danny closed his window and shrugged. _I think I have a pretty good idea what just happened…but playing it safe is my best bet._ "I have about as much of an idea as you do. The Fenton Ghost Catcher is supposed to expunge ghost energy. When I went through it once I pretty much split my human half from my ghost half. I don't think Sora has a ghost half, though, so…"

"Roxas is my Nobody," Sora said simply, taking a seat on the floor.

"_Your_ nobody?" Danny echoed.

"When someone becomes a heartless, the shell they leave behind becomes a Nobody," Roxas explained, though Danny knew he was only playing the part so Sora wouldn't know about the dream intrusion. "I'm Sora's Nobody."

"But wouldn't that make you a heartless?"

Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, star-shaped charm sewn out of seashells. "I was a heartless once," he began, unsteadily. "When my world was taken by the heartless, my friend Kairi…we thought she lost her heart, but in reality, it sort of fled from her own body and took shelter in mine. I didn't know anything about it until Ans…Xehanort's Heartless possessed my best friend Riku and told me about it just before he was about to kill me and take it for his own uses. I managed to beat him, but Kairi couldn't wake up unless she had her heart back. So I picked up the keyblade he left behind…it had the power to free captive hearts. I used it on myself, and everyone's heart was free, including Kairi's…and mine."

"And you became a heartless," Danny said quietly.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "I don't remember much at the time, but when I managed to follow Kairi when she woke up, something happened…and I came back. I was myself, somehow. She knew all about what I had been going through, trying to find her, and what I had to finish…so she gave me her good luck charm and I promised to give it back to her."

An uneasy silence fell over the group. Danny glanced back and forth at Sora and Roxas. _They do look really similar. It's kind of hard to believe that they're the same person, in a weird twisted way. He must be pretty strong to keep going for this long, what with friends to look for and a promise to keep._

"Danny!"

The voice caught everyone completely off guard. The halfa stood and instinctively shifted into ghost form as Danielle flew through his door, gasping for breath. "Danielle!" He cried. "Did you have trouble distracting my parents?"

"Worse," The girl replied. "I managed to shake them off and I went outside for some fresh air. But when I got there, I…I…"

Roxas leapt to his feet and raced for the window. His eyes widened considerably. "Guys, you're not going to like this very much."

When everyone else came to the window, they couldn't help but agree. There was a gigantic heartless that strongly reminded Danny of the neoshadows, only this one was more distorted, had a mess of hair surrounding its head, and a heart-shaped hole through its torso. To make matters worse, it was headed straight for Fentonworks.

* * *

Vlad Plasmius clutched his side and gasped for breath as Vexen stepped closer. "Why are you doing this?" he wheezed. "I thought you were going to help me get rid of…"

"Quite frankly," Vexen spat, "You have outlived your usefulness, foolish halfa, and I have run out of patience. You _will_ tell me what I want to know, or you will get a taste firsthand of what it's like to become one of us." He held his shield in front of him with one hand, and raised the other to aim a shard of ice at Plasmius.

"I can't do that!" Plasmius cried. "Last time we freed him, the entire world nearly fell to his rule!"

Vexen grinned. "Indeed, he must be powerful. That is why I must find him and resurrect him. Now, Plasmius, tell me the location of the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep!"

Nearby, Plasmius's computer screen flickered ever so slightly.


	19. The Trap

I AM NOT WORTHY.

AT ALL.

Yeah, I haven't updated this thing in ages…but here we go! CHAPTER 19! YAY! I'm sorry it's so short, but I thought it was a good place to end. The good news is that I _might _be on a roll with this again, so updates will probably be coming in again. Whew...sorry about that hiatus, guys. n.n;

The final few chapters are coming up! And stuff...so...let the chapter begin!

**Amity Invasion**

**By FlikFreak**

**Chapter Nineteen: The Trap**

* * *

"Well…this is interesting."

"What's up?"

The cloaked figure crossed his arms. "Looks like some of those ghost weapons work on nobodies, too. Sora's been split from Roxas."

The voice in his earpiece hummed thoughtfully. "Is that good or bad?"

"Both," the cloaked figure replied.

"Both? How?"

"Well, the good news is that Sora's got twice the fighting force on his side now. Plus, the two of them can still exchange thoughts without having to speak, even though it's a bit more difficult than normal."

"That's a plus. But…what's the bad news?"

The cloaked figure bit his lip. "The bad news is that if they don't get fixed up soon, re-fusing them will be no picnic…assuming they're both still alive."

* * *

Sora sighed. "I never thought I'd see a Darkside again."

While Danny couldn't exactly agree with Sora – he had never seen this kind of heartless before – he did agree that it was getting a bit old for them to be attacking at such inopportune moments…and so often. Even so, he shifted into ghost form and approached his window, pushing it open. "You guys wanna sit here and _think_ about this or _fight_ that thing?"

"Not like it'll be much of a fight," Roxas muttered. "Sora's beaten that thing what, three times?"

"And he keeps coming back?" Danielle asked. "Talk about stubborn."

Sora shrugged. "Round four is only easier with help, if you guys want to."

_Gee, he sure is casual about this,_ Danny grumbled as the group hopped out the window. Once landing, however, he began to take back his sarcasm.

Darkside, as he had heard Sora call it moments before, was _huge_. How Sora could have beaten the thing _three_ _times_ was a mystery. He had hardly begun to react when an enormous, black fist threw itself in their direction. Crying out in shock, Danny flew into the air and hovered, his legs forming a spectral tail. The fist slammed into the ground, forming a black puddle and making a large crater in the pavement. Taking the chance, Roxas jumped onto the creature's arm and ran up towards his shoulder, keyblade brandished. Just as he struck the monster's skull, however, Darkside stood and the Nobody was forced to jump back to the ground, leaving minimal damage on the enemy.

Danielle came in from the side, sending a flurry of ectoblasts at Darkside's head. As much as they struck the creature, however, it didn't flinch. Danny grit his teeth. _Geez! How did Sora beat this thing? Does it even _know_ it's getting hurt?_

"Have no fear! The Fentons are here!"

Danny shoved his face into his hand. _And now it just got worse._

Sora hastily pulled his hood over his head, hoping to hide his face. "Danny! What now? We can't let your parents know!"

The halfa took in the battlefield carefully, toggling invisibility to avoid any attention. The Darkside was, thankfully, not attacking his house. His parents had stepped out the door and were aiming some kind of gun at the giant heartless. Upon closer inspection, Danny realized that it wasn't the Fenton Bazooka as it probably should have been, but the prototype of the commission. His eyes widened. _Uh-oh._

Roxas skidded to the pavement, standing again and wiping a trickle of blood from his chin. "Stupid little…"

Jack Fenton fired the prototype. It hit Darkside dead-on.

Danny could only watch in horror as an unearthly glow began to form around the gigantic heartless. He could practically _feel_ the heartless growing more powerful as the glow intensified and had half a mind to cross his arms and glare daggers at his father for being so incompetent (again). Sure enough, he was staring at the object in his hand, dumbfounded. "Now, that can't be right…this is supposed to…" The man's eyes traveled to the object's label. "…oh."

As the beast let out a roar, Danny doubled back a bit, his attention refocused. "Not good," he muttered before turning to Sora and Roxas. "That machine gave that thing ghost DNA! Look out!"

"Hang on!" Danielle cried. "Danny, what's that thing you always carry around to catch ghosts in?!"

"You mean the Fenton Thermos?" Danny replied, looking up in time as the beast swung an arm toward him. Turning intangible, Danny managed to dodge the blow, but Sora and Roxas on the ground beneath him barely had such luck.

"I think Danni's onto something!" Roxas shouted. "If that machine gives heartless ghost powers, then anything that works against ghosts will work on it, too!"

_Of course!_ Danny cried. _Why didn't I think about that before?_ "Guys! Keep that Darkside and my parents busy! I'm going to go get a thermos for this thing!"

Roxas looked about as reassured as someone tied to a railroad. "For what? Soup?!"

Danny ignored him, diving back into the house. The sounds of the battle waged on behind them (As well as his parents' frustrated cries at whether to follow the ghost boy or take care of Darkside), but he ignored them as he shot downstairs and into the lab, grabbing a thermos the moment he laid eyes on it. The world shook around him and he heard several screams. Hurrying, Danny rummaged through box after box before finally grabbing a familiar white-and-green cylinder. Grinning victoriously, he tore out of the house, his hands instinctively on the hood of the thermos. "Guys! Stand back!"

Roxas, Sora and Danielle were more than happy to oblige, although Danny's parents weren't too convinced. "What do you want with us this time, ghost boy?!" Maddie cried. "You think you can trick us?!"

"Knock it off!" Roxas yelled back at the woman. "Can't you see he's been trying to help all this time?!"

"So he's tricked you, too?!" Jack exclaimed. "Quick, Maddie! Get the Fento-"

"He's telling the truth!" Sora added, cutting the man off. "That ghost has been protecting your town from all the other ghosts for ages, and you repay him by hunting him down?! Honestly, can't you get it through your head that not all ghosts are bad?"

Had there not been a battle being waged, there would have been a moment of silence and contemplation. Instead, Danny took the few seconds of hesitation that Sora had managed to conjure from his parents and activated the thermos, aiming it at the Darkside. There was a low bellow from the beast's non-existent mouth, and it was dragged into the mouth of the device. Once the last trace of Darkside vanished, Danny proudly snapped the cap onto the thermos and shook it smugly. _That takes care of that._

Roxas pointed at Danny. "See? If you'd just give him a chance…"

Danny could see his mother's eyes through her goggles; she had never looked so unsure in her life. His father, on the other hand, was predictably dumbfounded. Flying downward, Danny shot Sora a grin. "Remind me to thank him later," he whispered. Sora replied with a simple nod.

The moment was broken by the shattering of a window and the appearance of an all-too-familiar ghost. "_Sugar cookies_, he got away!"

Danny stared, mouth gawking as a familiar nemesis appeared overhead. He blinked. "Wha…what're _you_ doing here, Vlad?"

The vampire-esque halfa glared back at him, but not in malevolence this time. "Daniel, haven't you realized it yet? That monster was a _distraction_. While you were toying with it, the man in the black cloak just snuck past you and into your house!"

"What?!"

"And to make matters _worse_," Plasmius continued, "He intends to utilize your parents' ghost portal to enter the Ghost Zone and reawaken Pariah Dark! If you don't stop him _now_, I'm sure nothing will!"


End file.
